‘She was a good provider’

The Filipino overseas worker who died in Sunday’s suicide bomb attack on a bus in Israel toiled as a caregiver abroad in order to provide for her family back home.

"She was a good provider," relatives say of Rosalia "Rosie" Reyes, 40, who was among 16 people killed in the attack believed carried out by Palestinian extremists.

"She never forgot the family she left behind in Batangas," recalls Digna Ilao, Rosie’s younger sister, at their home in Padre Garcia, Batangas. Rosie was reportedly earning $500 (about P26,000) a month.

Rosie left behind husband Leonardo, 43, and children Divina Gracia, 20, and Richardson, 18. Divina is expected to graduate from college in March next year.

"My daughter is a hard- working woman whose dream was to let her two children finish college," sobbed Remedios Ilao, Rosie’s 74-year-old widowed mother. Rosie’s husband Leonardo is ailing and has no job. He ekes out a living raising pigs in their backyard.

Digna recalls that Rosie was a loving mother and would send text messages regularly to her son Richard, who received a cell phone from his mother during his last birthday.

But Richard wondered why, a day before the accident, his mother sent him an unusually short message: "Matulog ka na (Go to sleep already)." Richard felt something strange about the message and did not text his mother back.

It was an aunt of Rosie, a certain Amy Arellano, who broke the news of her death to their relatives in Batangas. Amy helped Rosie find a job in Israel, and she found one as a caregiver to an old Jewish woman.

Amy told relatives that she warned Rosie not to report for work last Sunday, for reasons she could not explain.

Amy also told relatives that on that fateful Sunday, Rosie and six other Filipino OCWs decided to all ride home together. According to Amy’s son Ely Arellano, Rosie decided to sit in front, where the suicide bomber also took a seat. Her companions decided to sit in the back.

The wounded Filipinos were identified as Lily Basi, Mario Libao, Raul Divas and his sister Maricar. Except for Raul, the three are said to be in critical condition after being hit by shrapnel in different parts of the body.

According to Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas, the other three victims underwent surgery to remove shrapnel from their bodies, with Libao now in the intensive care unit.

Sto. Tomas said the government of Israel is shouldering the cost of medical treatment of all victims of the bombing, who are confined at the Ramban Hospital in Haifa.

In Manila, Israeli Ambassador Irit Ben-Abba has sent her condolences to President Arroyo for the tragic death of Rosie.

"Her sympathy is also with the families of the four other Filipino workers who were injured," a press statement from the Embassy of Israel said.

In her letter to Mrs. Arroyo, Ben-Abba stressed "that the Israeli government supports the initiatives of the Arroyo administration in the global fight against terrorism."

The Israeli envoy also requested the Philippine government "to exert efforts in calling on Chairman Yasser Arafat of the Palestinian Authority to stop the atrocities against innocent civilians, to fight stubbornly against terrorism and to arrest all those responsible for planning and executing those horrific acts."

Rosie was reportedly still paying off a job placement fee of P200,000 at the time of her death.

She also once worked as a caregiver in England and Saudi Arabia. She began working in Israel in March 2001 and her contract was to end in 2004.

Rosie’s remains are expected to arrive either today or tomorrow.