Assistance for Filipina hurt in Barcelona

FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano has instructed the Philippine Embassy in Madrid to extend help to a Filipina who was seriously injured in Thursday’s terrorist attack in Barcelona, Spain.

Cayetano also directed Chargè d’Affaires Emmanuel Fernandez to help locate the missing 7- year- old son of the 43- year- old Filipina who is married to a British.

He ordered Fernandez to proceed immediately to Barcelona to assist the unidentified Filipina who remains in serious condition at a hospital in Barcelona.

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

She and her son were in Barcelona to attend the wedding of a cousin from the Philippines when the terror attack took place.

“It saddens us to inform the public that a kababayan [fellow countryman] of ours from Australia and her 7-yearold son are among the victims of last Thursday’s terrorist attack in Barcelona,” Cayetano said.

“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 said.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Sarah Arriola said the Filipina has been based in Australia for the past three or four years.

Arriola said Consul Jordi Puig Roches visited the victim in the hospital after he was notified by local authorities. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is in touch with her relatives in the Philippines.

The attack, which involved a van that plowed through crowds gathered in Barcelona’s Las Ramblas tourist district, also resulted in injuries to members of an Irish family that was of Filipino descent.

Arriola said Roches continues to monitor the condition of the father and his son. He also reported the success of the surgery performed on the 5-yearold boy who suffered a leg injury as a result of 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,” Arriola said.

She said the embassy is 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.