Pinay caregiver's remains arriving from New York

NEW YORK — When 17-year old Gliff John Garcia, found out his mother was dead, after allegedly hanging herself in a closet, he wept in their home in Batangas. He was so shocked he couldn’t believe his mother would commit suicide. The young Garcia and his brother Garry, flew from the Philippines to New York to attend last Sunday’s wake of Felisa “Fely" Garcia at Greenwich Village Funeral Home. Fely, escorted by her sons, is coming home Thursday morning and will be brought to her resting place in Barangay Dacanlao, Calaca, Batangas. “It was so painful to lose a mother, I was always with my mother. She gave me all I need, She was so kind," John said. His brother, Garry, 40, a business owner in Batangas said it was difficult for all four children to accept the tragic death of their mother. “She was never depressed. She always looked after the interest of her children," said Garry. After weeks of campaigning for a second investigation and for the New York consulate to shoulder the repatriation and burial fees, the body of Garcia would be flown to the Philippines on Tuesday, Julia Camagong of Philippine Forum said. Amid patriotic songs, eulogies and prayers, Philippine Forum, friends and relatives of Garcia honored her Sunday night. Her casket was closed, and only her photos were displayed at the funeral home. Garcia, 58, found dead in her Bronx home on March 14, 2007, has been in the heart of the controversy involving what many deem as the New York Police Department and Philippine Consulate’s essential mishandling of the initial investigation and lack of great consideration for alerting her family back in Batangas. Through the Philippine Forum, Garcia’s two sons were able to secure visas to come to the United States and raise money for roundtrip airfare from the Philippines. The Philippine Forum, an 11-year community organization in Queens , through its domestic worker-organizing project Kabalikat, has been in communication with the family since news of Garcia’s death, and launched a massive community campaign to push for their demands. The organization was also able to secure pro-bono legal representation for the family. The Philippine Consulate offered a partial repatriation fee of $4.900. The family, however, maintains the amount is not enough, and should secure her transportation all the way back to Batangas, not just Manila. Burial fee money has also not been offered by the consulate. Philippine Forum maintains that financial, legal, and other forms of assistance should be standard policy by the Philippine government. “We are honored to have Fely’s sons come to New York City to pay their respects to their mother and bring her home for a proper burial, despite the ongoing campaign for justice and for fulfillment of the family’s wishes. They, along with their mother, have been further victimized by a criminally-negligent Philippine government with an aggressive but inhumane labor export policy void of compassion, dignity, and basic human services," states Rico Foz, executive vice president of the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns, a network of Filipino American organizations. Garcia’s death shows the vulnerability of Filipino domestic workers overseas. She is one of the 30,000 Filipino domestic workers in New York who, together with domestic workers in Hong Kong and the Middle East are also forced to work in abusive, dangerous and dehumanizing conditions, without legal protections by both the Philippine and U.S. governments. Even in the U.S., migrant domestic workers, who are 95% women, are overwhelmed with problems resulting from separation from their children, long hours of work, low wages, no overtime pay and lack of benefits, and experience systemic racism and devaluation of women’s labor in the domestic sphere. The Philippine Consulate General expressed condolence to the children of Garcia and said the Philippine government shared their grief. Garcia used to send $400 almost every month to her four children. “My mother was paying for my studies. I’m not sure if I can still go to college, both my parents are dead," said John. Tessie Ibanga, landlady of Garcia in the Bronx, shed tears during the service. She could not believe Garcia committed suicide. “That night, we were so happy. We were eating together. She didn’t say she had problems. We were so relaxed. There were no indications of a tragedy," said Ibanga. A poem read by Philippine Forum, and written by Joi Barrios Leblanc, paid tribute to Garcia: “Only her death is a mystery, the poverty that drives us to exile is the tragedy that wrings our necks, and we fight, each moment we fight for glorious hope, for every fearless breath. - Philippine News