Another Pinay hurt, son missing in Spain attack

MANILA, Philippines - A Filipina is in serious condition while her seven-year-old son is missing following the deadly terrorist attack in Barcelona, Spain on Thursday, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

The Filipina and her son, whose identities were not released, were the latest confirmed Filipino victims in the attack that left at least 14 dead and scores injured.

The DFA earlier said that an Irish citizen of Filipino descent and his five-year-old son were among those injured in the incident.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano has instructed the Philippine embassy in Madrid to extend all possible assistance to the Filipina who was seriously injured and exert all efforts to help locate her son.

“It saddens us to inform the public that a kababayan of ours from Australia and her seven-year-old son are among the victims of last Thursday’s terrorist attack in Barcelona,” Cayetano said in a statement.

“I have directed our embassy in Madrid to proceed to Barcelona and extend all possible assistance to our injured kababayan and to exert all efforts to help find her son,” he added.

Cayetano said the embassy’s chargè d’affaires Emmanuel Fernandez would be in charge of assisting the Filipina, who was in Spain with her child to attend a wedding of a cousin from the Philippines.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Sarah Arriola said the 43-year-old Filipina is the wife of a British subject and has been based in Australia for the past three or four years.

She said Jordi Puig Roches, an honorary consul, visited the victim in the hospital after he was notified by local authorities, while the DFA is in touch with her relatives in the Philippines.

Arriola said the Filipina’s husband is also on his way to Barcelona to help locate his son who got separated from his mother during the attack.

The DFA official said the honorary consul continues to monitor the condition of the father and his son and reported the success of the surgery performed on the five-year-old boy who suffered a leg injury in the attack.

“We will continue to exert all efforts until we are sure that there are no other Filipinos among the victims of this dastardly act,” she said.

Arriola added the embassy and the honorary consulate are working closely with members of the Filipino community in checking if there are other Filipinos who were among those who were killed or injured in the attack.

Pure evil

Bataan?Bishop Ruperto Santos, chairman of the committee of the Catholic Bishop’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) caring for Filipinos overseas, said members of the terrorist Islamic State (IS) were “pure evil sowing death and destruction.”

“There is nothing good in IS…What they have is false ideology. There is no honor in killing. And the name of God should never be used in vain,” Santos said.

Santos also offered prayers for those who died or were injured when a van rammed through a crowd in Los Ramblas promenade last Thursday.

“May God grant eternal rest to the victims and comfort with His mercy those who are suffering,” he said. – With Evelyn Macairan, Jose Rodel Clapano