Payouts may help Filipina killed in quake achieve her ‘goal’

The family of a Filipino caregiver killed in an earthquake in Taiwan will receive approximately 1.94 million Philippine pesos (US$37,510) in compensation from various sources in the Philippines and Taiwan.

On Friday, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said the family of Melody Albano Castro, 28, would receive 100,000 pesos (US$1,934) in financial aid from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Rappler reported.

Bello said 15,000 pesos would also be provided for funeral expenses, as well as 10,000 pesos per year for her five-year-old child’s elementary education. He said the family would also get US$15,000 in “compulsory insurance” from her employment agency and TWD100,000 ($3,409) from the Hualien City government.

And Castro’s employers would give her family insurance totaling TWD500,000 ($17,055). All in all, Bello said, the maid’s dependants would receive about 1.94 million pesos.

The Philippine government is arranging the repatriation of Castro’s remains.

Castro, who went to Taiwan three years ago and worked as a caregiver, was relaying money for her husband, who needs a brain operation after a car accident left him paralyzed, Focus Taiwan reported.

If figures reported in the Taiwan media outlet are correct, there should easily be enough to achieve the goal that allegedly took her overseas – a further $US15,300 needed to pay for her husband’s much-needed operation.

Read: Missing Filipina confirmed dead in Hualien earthquake

Read: Filipino carer still missing after deadly Hualien earthquake