The Philippine government is facilitating the repatriation of the remains of an Overseas Filipino Worker from La Castellana town in Negros Occidental who was among the 26 people killed when an old six-story building in Beirut, Lebanon, collapsed on January 15, Joselito Blas, head of the DFA Regional Consular Office in Bacolod City, said yesterday.

Mary Ann Davatos, 26, of Hacienda Cahilamonan, Barangay Nato, La Castellana, was at the God's Divine Love International Ministry Sunday mass, with two other Filipinas when the building collapsed, he said.

OFW Lucy Bombales was also killed, while OFW Juvelyn Corcon identified as the pastor of the God's Divine Love International Ministry, was reported missing, a DFA report showed.

Davatos was not a registered member of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration so she will not be able to receive benefits from OWWA, but Blas assured that the Philippine embassy in Lebanon was working on the repatriation of her remains.

Denmark Davatos, 28, said his sister had been working as a domestic helper in Lebanon for three years.

Mary Ann was a graduate of La Castellana National High School and had gone to Lebanon to earn money to redeem the one-and-a-half hectare family farm they had pawned when their mother got sick, Denmark said.

Their mother, Zenaida, suffered from kidney trouble that had cost them a lot of money, and she eventually died in 2008, Denmark said.

Their father, Nestor, works on a farm and Mary Ann used to send him money especially when he got sick, he added.

Denmark, who is married and has one child, lives in Calinog, Iloilo and sells halo-halo for a living.

“We do not have much money so we are appealing to the government to help bring my sister home,” he said.

Denmark also said he hopes the last salary of his sister from her employer could be sent to them as they could use it for funeral expenses.

Meanwhile, Blas said his office is also following up the request of Lourdes Ballenas for the repatriation of the remains of her OFW husband Gleyn Ballenas who died, probably of a stroke, in Saudi Arabia in December.

The DFA needed the wedding certificate of Lourdes as an authority to claim the body.

Meanwhile, Blas said Rachel Guzon, 25, of Murcia, who has been detained in Kuwait for an expired visa since Nov. 28, 2011, is expected to be brought home with other Filipinos in March.

Guzon, who had worked as a helper in Kuwait for one year and three months, had escaped from her abusive employer.*CPG

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