By Glazyl Y. Masculino
BACOLOD City – The local government of Cadiz in Negros Occidental paid tribute last Monday to an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who was killed in a Hamas attack in Israel early this month.
Mayor Salvador Escalante Jr. declared 49-year-old Loreta Alacre of Barangay Cadiz Viejo, as a “bagong bayani” or hero in the city, as the city held a heroine’s welcome a day after her remains arrived in the province last Sunday.
As a tribute to her heroism as an OFW, the city government is set to name its newly-built Evacuation Center situated within Cadiz Viejo National High School to Loreta V. Alacre Evacuation Center. She finished her secondary education at the said school.
Alacre started working as an OFW for a few years in Taiwan in 2002 before she came to Israel where she worked as a caregiver based in Tel Aviv for about 15 years.
Alacre was attending a music festival near the boundary of the Gaza Strip when Hamas militants launched an attack that killed her on October 7.
She was among the four Filipino fatalities in the war between Hamas militants and Israel.
Administrator Arnell Ignacio of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) arrived in the province and visited Alacre’s family including her seven siblings at their residence on Monday afternoon.
He was joined by OWWA-6 officer-in-charge regional director Rizza Joy Moldez.
Ignacio said the Department of Migrant Workers gave P50,000 aid while OWWA extended another P50,000 to the Alacre family.
The Department of Labor and Employment on the other hand will also extend a livelihood package to the family.
Ignacio said OWWA will also provide a scholarship grant to five of Loreta’s nieces and nephews.
OWWA will also finance the completion of the comfort room kitchen of the house being constructed by Loreta for her kin.
Ignacio said Alacre was the first among the four Pinoy fatalities in Israel to be repatriated.
The tentative schedule for Alacre’s burial was set by the family on November 5, 2023.
Loreta, 49, is single, the sixth in the brood of eight, and has been working as a caregiver in Israel for 14 years.
She was the one sending her nieces and nephews to school.
Alacre was supposed to go home this December to celebrate her 50th birthday with her siblings. (With a report from Dolly Yasa)
