2 Pinays killed in Israel bombing

MINALIN, Pampanga — Two years ago, caregiver Adelina Cunanan survived a suicide bomber’s attack on a bus in Israel. But last Sunday, she was not as fortunate.

Cunanan, who would have turned 44 on Aug. 15, was one of the two female overseas Filipino workers who were among the nine people killed after a Palestinian suicide bomber shredded a bus packed with soldiers and civilians in the hills of Galilee during the morning rush hour Sunday.

The other Filipina caregiver was Rebecca Ruga, 39, of Bansud, Oriental Mindoro.

Cunanan’s younger brother, Pablo Lagunilla Jr. told The STAR that two years ago her sister narrowly escaped death when she decided to board another bus on her way to work. The bus which she originally wanted to board was destroyed by a suicide bomber.

Last Sunday, Cunanan broke her commuting pattern by taking a bus instead of a train, which was considered much safer. She boarded a bus and not a train because she was already late for work. This time around a suicide bomber’s attack killed her.

Lagunilla quoted Cunanan’s 17-year-old daughter Gladys, a pharmacy student at Centro Escolar University, as asking, "Why did she have to take the bus? She used to take the train."

Cunanan’s 20-year-old son Neil has not yet been informed of her mother’s death. He is vacationing in Cebu. Her father, Pablo, 64, who has heart problems, is also being kept in the dark for fear that the news might affect his condition.

Cunanan has already spent about P300,000 on her father’s medication and hospitalization at the Philippine Heart Center.

Her family received the news of her death with extreme grief.

Cunanan was a major breadwinner for the family, not only with her two children, parents and several of her brothers and sisters residing in barangay San Francisco II in this flood-prone town of Minalin.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople sent a special emissary, Elmer Cato, to condole with the Cunanan family.

Through Cato, Ople has promised to speed up the repatriation of Cunanan’s remains. Cato and Mayor Edgardo Flores used a dump truck to reach the Cunanan family residence. Roads were impassable to light vehicles due to flooding.

Cunanan’s husband Henry, who is working in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, is expected to return to the country on Wednesday.

"We had always been worried about her safety since we see on television news of bombings in Israel," Lagunilla said in an interview.

Mayor Flores, on the other hand, said in a separate interview that they plan to give Cunanan "a heroine’s welcome," citing the government oft-repeated statement that the overseas Filipino workers are "modern day heroes." The wake is planned to be held at a chapel in San Francisco II, but the area is still submerged in flood.

Before working in Israel, Cunanan helped her family by selling native delicacies in the local market. Cunanan was a caregiver in Israel for five years and three months.

She was looking forward to coming home to attend her daughter’s debut in March next year.

In Manila, Ople said safety guidelines have been issued for the 30,000 Filipinos working in Israel after the deaths of the two caregivers.

Ople said the unspecified guidelines had been passed on through the Philippine Embassy in Tel Aviv.

Meanwhile, Labor and Employment Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas assured families of the victims the government would assist in the repatriation of the remains and in processing claims of all benefits due the two properly documented overseas workers.

"I wish to offer my condolences to the families of the two victims, it pains me so much every time I receive a news like this, because our migrant workers are caught in the crossfire such of what is happening between Israel and the Palestinians," she said.

Initial reports indicated that Cunanan and Ruga were on board the bus cruising Highway 89 bound for Sefat from Haifa.

The two Filipinas and an Israeli woman were about to get off the bus after reaching the Satsufa Moshav bus stop when the suicide bomber detonated a bomb at about 8:30 a.m.

The dead included three Israeli soldiers, the two Filipina women and one Arab Israeli woman, authorities said. Thirty-seven people were wounded, two critically, rescue workers said.

But Philippine officials in Manila estimated that 50 have been wounded.

Sto. Tomas said the labor office in Tel Aviv was closely coordinating with the National Insurance Institute-Ministry of Labor so that all benefits due the families of the victims can be given them. Those benefits include repatriation cost, lump sum payments and pension.

Labor Undersecretary Manuel Imson said there was no plan to ban the deployment of Filipino workers in Israel or to repatriate the estimated 30,000 currently working there.

Imson said there was no cause for worry or panic at this time, and even assured the safety of the Filipino workers in Israel. He said contingency plans were already in place and that Philippine authorities have advised Filipinos in Israel to avoid going to areas of conflict and to stay home as much as possible.

Ople said Filipinos in Israel had set up a carpool system to lessen their dependence on public transportation. He said it was "unfortunate and regrettable" that the two Filipinos did not avail of the carpool on Sunday.

The Department of Foreign Affairs would discourage Filipinos from seeking jobs in Israel due to the hostilities and that there was a standing offer for Filipinos to be repatriated to Manila, he said.

Of the estimated 30,000 Filipinos in Israel, 22,000 are not properly documented.

Palestinian attacks have killed 25 people since an Israeli airstrike on July 22 killed leading Hamas militant Salah Shehadeh and 14 Palestinians, many of them children, in Gaza.

US President George W. Bush said he was "distressed" to learn of the latest bombing. "There are a few killers who want to stop the peace process," Bush said.

The bus bombing where the two Filipinas were killed, at Meron Junction in the Galilee region of northern Israel, turned the green bus into a fireball, charring the insides and ripping the metal panels as if they were ribbons.

The bus driver, Shmuel Ronen, escaped with light wounds - just as he did six years ago when the bus he was driving in Jerusalem was bombed.

Ron Ratner, a spokesman for the Egged bus company, said security was tight in the coastal town of Haifa, where the trip originated. But the bomber probably boarded at a stop in one of the Arab villages on the way to the town of Tsfat.

About 4,000 people celebrated the bus bombing in Gaza City late Sunday, passing out sweets and praying near Shehadeh’s destroyed house, where militants shouting over loudspeakers vowed to "avenge every drop of his blood."

Israel TV said the bomber had come from the northern West Bank town of Jenin, and had managed to enter Israel because troops had been diverted from the area to Nablus for the army’s crackdown on that city.

The Israeli government said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who turned 73 on Sunday, bore ultimate responsibility for not reining in militants during the 22 months of Mideast fighting.

"This Palestinian terror must be uprooted and Israel will not relent," said David Baker, an official in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office.

The Palestinian leadership condemned the bombing, but also accused Sharon of "war crimes" for the Israeli army’s mass detentions, home demolitions and curfews imposed on Palestinians. — With reports from Mayen Jaymalin and Aurea Calica