Lorna Tolentino's body burned;
ashes to arrive in RP Feb. 3
By Alex P. Vidal
VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Efforts to bring home in the Philippines the body of dead cancer victim Lorna Tolentino failed to materialize after authorities led by the Migrant Workers’ Ministry of St. Mary’s Catholic Church on Joyce St. decided to cremate the 39-year-old former caregiver and nanny from San Miguel, Bulacan in the Philippines.
In an exclusive interview on Tuesday evening (January 17), Philippine Consul General Jose Ampeso confirmed Tolentino, who died of cervical cancer past noon on New Year's day, was burned in a mortuary in Burnaby at around 2 p.m.
"No family member was present and those who prepared the cremation wanted it done privately and refused to open it to media," Ampeso disclosed.
The consul general said Dr. Dan Vargas, of the Canadian Medical Mission Society (CMMS), will bring Tolentino's ashes to the Philippines to be turned over to her family on February 3.
'BEST OPTION'
"Cremation was the best option because bringing Tolentino's cadaver to the Philippines would cost about $15,000," Ampeso explained.
Ampeso also confirmed that one Elizabeth Malihan, who earlier warned to sue journalists, specifically this writer and Philippine Asian News Today senior editor Ted Alcuitas, if they continued to write a story about Tolentino, is Tolentino's former employer.
Tolentino did not have insurance thus Multicultural Helping House Society (MHHS) president Tomas Avendano said they found it hard to bring the body for a funeral in the Philippines for lack of funds.
Avendano, who earlier confirmed they could only give Canadian $200 for Tolentino's hospital expenses from MHHS's welfare fund, refused to further comment about Tolentino's case saying he did not attend the cremation.
MEETING
Avendano and Tolentino's former employer, together with a representative from the office of Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Mable Elmore, met at the MHHS office days before a decision was made to cremate the body which had been kept at the morgue of the Burnaby General Hospital.
Tolentino arrived in Canada on June 2008 to work as a caregiver under Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). In October last year she was diagnosed with terminal cancer and admitted to the Burnaby Hospital, according to Alcuitas who visited the patient before she died.
"While she came to care for others, she was alone in a hospital bed except for the occasional visits from friends and others who came to know her. Lorna, like millions of Filipinos in the Diaspora, left the Philippines to search for the proverbial 'better life' abroad," narrated Alcuitas.
"She came to Canada three years ago to care for two young children of a family friend and townmate from San Miguel, Bulacan. She did that for over two years – taking care of the children, feeding them, taking them to school and perhaps putting them to bed. And oh yes, and cooking, cleaning and other mundane chores a domestic worker is expected to do."
Alcuitas added that Tolentino "came under the much-touted Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) to work and live with her employer for five days a week for a minimum of 24 months. The deal is that if you’re lucky to work continuously for 24 months, you will be rewarded with the opportunity to apply for Permanent Residency (PR)."
"It used to be called 'Landed Status’ but perhaps the powers-that-be figured that these women (who constitute a majority of LCPers) were not ‘floating’ up in the air before they were allowed to land, so to speak. (Lorna got her PR at the hospital weeks before she died.)"
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