‘The virus was just too strong’
Mikee Plangca (21, at back) with her siblings Chekie (12), Michael (19) and John (14). Their father Miguel, a factory worker, lost his battle with Covid-19, leaving the four siblings orphaned. They are now living with their aunt Fely in Allenwood, Co Kildare.
MIGUEL PLANGCA was 36 when he left his home in Ozamis city in the Philippines for a new life in Ireland.
Like many Filipinos who relocate here, he had come for employment and managed to secure a job in Naas with Green Isle, one of the country’s biggest frozen food producers.
For the next 20 years he did little else but work, clocking up thousands of gruelling hours on the factory packaging line and sending money home to his wife Gilceria and his five children in the Philippines.
When Gilceria died from cancer in 2015, his heartbroken children came to live with him in Naas, Co Kildare.
Last week, tragedy struck the Plangca children once again when Miguel (55) succumbed to the coronavirus.
“It came as such a shock,” his 21-year-old daughter Mikee told the Irish Independent.
“Dad had been sick for about a week in the house, with a cough and what he thought was a cold and then he ended up in ICU. He spent 41 days there before he died. It’s very hard for us to take it all in at the minute.”
Together with her siblings Michael (19), John (14) and Chekie (12), Mikee is now an orphan.
“I’m concentrating on minding my brothers and sisters for now,” she said.
“We don’t know what will happen. We would like to stay in Ireland because that’s where we have made a life, where our friends are and our [Filipino] community is, but we don’t know.”
The Plangca children first arrived in Ireland four years ago. Until then, they had lived their lives in the Philippines, where their only contact with their father was through video calls and twice-yearly visits.
Their half-sister Stephanie, a daughter Miguel had from a previous relationship, was living in Abu Dhabi.
“My father made a decision many years ago to come here to provide for us,” said Mikee.
“He left so we could stay in the Philippines and have a better quality of life. Every month he sent money home tous.
“We were like many other families in the Philippines who had a parent in another country working to provide.
“Then when my mother died, we came here to Ireland to live with him.”
After completing sixth year at school in Prosperous, Co Kildare, Mikee opted out of going to college.
Instead, she applied to be a full-time carer for her brother Michael, who has intellectual disabilities.
“My brother is my responsibility,” said Mikee.
“When we first came to Ireland, Dad was working day shifts but he switched to night shifts so that I could go to school. He looked after Michael during the day and worked at night.
“My Dad made so many sacrifices for us. He was a good man and everything he did he did for us.”
Meanwhile, Miguel’s sister Fely had followed in her brother’s footsteps by moving to Ireland herself in 2009.
She later married an Irish man and settled in Naas, where she works as a childminder.
“I was working in the Philippines, not earning a lot of money and my brother encouraged me to come here,” she said. “I met an Irish man and got married and I made a life here too.
“When Gilceria died and the children came here Miguel was finding it difficult to cope on his own and he talked about moving back to the Philippines. I said no, you can do this, so they moved in.
“My husband said to bring them in to live with us and that’s where they were living when this all happened.”
After Miguel fell ill with Covid-19, Fely also contracted the virus.
Miguel was hospitalised on April 1 and Fely joined him in Naas General hospital six days later. When Miguel’s children were tested, Mikee and Michael were found to be Covid positive.
“Michael and I had no symptoms,” said Mikee. “We self-isolated in the house for a month. We were too scared to go out.”
Fely was discharged on April 15, but her brother’s condition worsened.
“My mother and siblings would call him every night at six o’clock,” she said.
“They would talk to him in his hospital bed and we were all praying he would
get better. In the end it was no good, the virus was too strong.”
Last year, the Green Isle pizza manufacturing site in Naas where Miguel worked was bought over by Birdseye.
Colleagues remember him as a kind and gentle colleague. When he became ill, the Filipino community stepped in to look after his young family.
“We had to try to help out as best we could,” said Aina Conway, president of the Kildare Filipino Community.
“They have recovered but they have lost their father and they are in shock. I speak to Mikee most days and she has cried every day since her father was brought in to ICU. At the moment she is just trying to be strong for the little ones.”
Together with the Philippine consulate, the Kildare Filipino Community are raising money in aid of the Plangca children.
“They have their aunt, but Mikee has been the mum for a long time,” said Aina.
“Now that they have lost their father, they need all the support we can give them. Miguel came here to provide a better life for his children. You look at the kids now and that’s them forever, with no parents. It’s incredibly sad.”