Employer raises funds for maid who lost 20 family members

A 34-year-old Singaporean woman made an appeal on her Facebook page to help raise money for her Filipina maid, who lost 20 family members in a horrific car crash in the Philippines.

Some 29 members of the Filipina’s extended family were in a private jeepney traveling to a mass in Manaoag at around 3:30am on Christmas Day when the vehicle had a head-on collision with a Partas bus on the MacArthur Highway in the town of Agoo, in La Union on the east coast of the main island Luzon, CNN Philippines reported.

Twenty of the maid’s family, including a five-month-old baby, were killed, and the remaining nine rushed to the Agoo Family Hospital for treatment.

The employer, an interior designer, learnt about the tragedy from her maid – who has worked for her for four months – and decided to raise funds to ease financial burdens that her maid’s family now faces.

The Partas bus company has agreed to pay compensation of around 15,000 pesos (US$300) per each person killed. But the employer said the average cost for basic funeral services in the Philippines was about S$752 per person, Shin Min Daily News reported.

At the time of writing, the employer and her friends had raised and remitted S$757 (US$569) to the Philippines, and they are continuing to raise funds.