• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
An evacuation center in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental will be named the Loreta V. Alacre Evacuation Center in honor of the heroism of Negrense caregiver who was killed in an attack by Hamas militant fighters in Israel, Mayor Salvador Escalante Jr. said on Tuesday.
The newly-built Cadiz City Evacuation Center is situated within the Cadiz Viejo National High School, the alma mater of Alacre, who was an overseas Filipino worker for 19 years in Taiwan and then in Israel from 2002 to 2023.
Escalante joined Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) administrator Arnaldo “Arnell” Ignacio, who visited the wake of Alacre on Oct. 23 in Sitio Camay-an, Barangay Cadiz Viejo, where the seven siblings of Loreta and her other family members are residing.
Escalante, who described Loreta as Cadiz’s “Bagong Bayani”, said that his request for renaming the evacuation center was already forwarded to the Sangguniang Panlungsod for delilberation and approval.
It took almost two weeks for her remains to arrive in the country after she was killed in Israel on Oct. 7.
She was among the four Filipinos killed during the Hamas attacks in Israel, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.
Loreta is scheduled to be buried on Nov. 5 at public cemetery in Barangay Caduha-an.
After a mass was held at her wake on Tuesday, the OWWA led by Ignacio, and the Department of Migrant Workers, respectively, turned over P50,000 each to the family of the slain OFW.
They are also recipients of financial assistance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development and a livelihood package from the Department of Labor and Employment.
Escalante said that aside from OWWA’s payment of P104,000 in funeral expenses, full scholarship grants will also be provide to Loreta’s four nephews and nieces, whose education she had been financing.
He added that the city government is willing to include the nephews and nieces of Loreta in a scholarship program that provides P5,000 per semester to college students.
Escalante said they are also looking at the possibility of employing Nelia Alacre, youngest sister of Loreta, and his brother in the city government.
House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez has also extended P500,000 financial assistance to the family of Alacre, which was received by Loreta’s siblings last week. | GB