Pinoy among 14 killed in Spain terror attack

MANILA, Philippines - The seven-year-old boy of Filipino descent who went missing during the terrorist attack in Barcelona last week was among the 14 fatalities, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

In a report to the DFA, chargé d’affaires Emmanuel Fernandez of the Philippine embassy in Madrid said the boy’s father positively identified the remains.

Fernandez said the victim’s 43-year-old mother remains in the intensive care unit of a local hospital after undergoing surgery for fractures in her legs and arm.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said, “It pains us to break the sad news that we lost one of our own in the recent violence unleashed by extremists against innocent civilians in Barcelona.”

“We join the loved ones of our little brother in mourning his passing and in praying for the eternal repose of his soul,” Cayetano said.

Two other Filipinos based in Italy were among those injured when a van plowed through crowds gathered at the Las Ramblas tourist district last Thursday.

Consul General Marichu Mauro said the injured Filipinos – a male and a female – would be assisted by the Philippine consulate general in Milan in getting medical attention.

Also injured in the attack were four Irish citizens of Filipino descent. They were Norman Potot, 45; his wife Pederlita, 39; daughter Nailah Pearl, 9, and son Nathaniel Paul, 5.

Norman and Nathaniel remain confined at the Hospital Del Mar in Barcelona.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Sarah Lou Arriola said they would extend assistance to the Filipino victims of the terror attack.