Search on for missing OFW in SoKor

The Philippine Embassy in Korea is searching for a 34-yearold Filipino who has been missing since August, 2016.

Rodel Manalo, who hails from Padre Garcia, Batangas and a worker under Korea’s Employment Permit System (EPS), went missing on Aug. 16, 2016 after he left his residence in Anseong City in Gyeonggi Province, the day he was scheduled to fly back to Manila for a vacation.

According to the embassy, his friends and co-workers at Daewa-Jongmil Company who visited him at his home to bid him goodbye were surprised upon learning that he disappeared, leaving all his personal belongings including luggage, passport, alien registration card and cell phone in his bedroom.

The Philippine Embassy has asked the help of the Anseong Police to search for Manalo. Sgt. Lee Kyuong, case officer, told the embassy no positive lead has come up regarding Manalo’s case.

The police urged Filipinos in Korea to join the search for Manalo through social media. Any information on Manalo can be relayed to the embassy via email at seoul.pe@dfa.gov.ph, through its Facebook page or telephone numbers 010-9263-8119 or (02) 796-7387 local 102.

Meanwhile, the embassy has repatriated OFW Vladimir Pediengco who met an accident in Korea last December.

Pediengco was admitted to the Soonchunhyang University Hospital in Gumi City, North Gyeongsang Province for more than a month where he underwent cervical spine column surgery.

Last Feb. 8, the Embassy’s welfare officer, Manuela Pena, and Woody Ferrerdelas Alas, president of the community organization Filipino Migrant Workers of Kumi (FIMWAK) assisted Pediengco whose wife, an OFW in Hong Kong, flew to Korea to escort her husband back to the Philippines.

Medical personnel from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) met Pediengco at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and escorted him to Bacolod City the following day.