The remains of two overseas Filipino workers who both met their tragic deaths in Saudi Arabia finally arrived here last Thursday and Friday.

The twin ill-fates of Franco Antonio Galo and Eugenia Baja have inflicted indescribable pains to their respective loved ones.

Galo, who was a Saudia Airlines aircraft maintenance personnel from Laya, Baclayon arrived at the Tagbilaran City Airport Thursday morning.

The body of Baja, 24-years old and whose death four months ago remains a mystery was flown into the country from Saudi Arabia via Flight CX903 on Thursday and was transported aboard Philippine Airlines flight PR-175 that arrived 7:00 a.m. here on Friday.

The corpses of the OFWs who both worked in Riyadh were sealed inside wooden crates when it arrived at the airport.

SHATTERED FAMILY FOR SHORT-LIVED DREAM

Baja was last seen by her family on May 6, 2007 when she left for Riyadh and tried her luck as a domestic helper.

According to an elder sister, Lilybeth Garcia, Eugenia or "Genia" to her family, left the country full of dreams not for herself but for her family.

Genia had to work right after graduating from high school because she wanted to help her parents and send her three younger siblings to school since their parents are already old and they barely survived with their income as farmers.

Farming used to be the only source of livelihood for their family in Sierra Bullones, according to Garcia.

She also said she and her other siblings had to work as household helpers to augment their parents' income until the time came when their parents could no longer farm because of old age.

Genia first worked as a saleslady in a department store, as a server at a burger machine stand, and as household helper before going abroad.

Genia decided to work abroad because, according to Lilybeth, "She didn't want our siblings to also end up as household helpers."

She was supposed to leave for Lebanon in 2005 as a domestic helper, but did not push through.

During her first month in Riyadh, she usually told Lilybeth through text messages that work was difficult and that she was always hungry because they only ate bread.

Despite the heavy work, Genia would always assure Lilybeth that she was alright and even told one her siblings to go home to the province and help their father in farming and sent money to buy a carabao.

MYSTERIOUS DEATH

Around December 2007, Genia called her family to tell them that she could not send them money for the holidays because her salary for the months of October, November and December were not given to her by her employer.

By the first week of January, Genia's family became worried because of a text message that she sent asking her elder brother to find her in Saudi.

Another text message from Genia alarmed the family saying that she did not know what was happening to her. She smelled something noxious. She felt terribly cold and seemed to be losing control of her mind. All she heard was "allah" but she did not know what was being done to her, Garcia recounted.

Her family was terribly for her, but all they could do was to console her through text messages.

By the end of January, the family became more worried about Genia's situation when she failed to reply to their text messages. It was only on February 27, that they were informed of Genia's death last February 24 and that her remains are at the Shumeisy Hospital.

In a written statement, Genia's employer claimed that she got sick and was brought to the hospital and later died.

According to the employer, Baja killed herself after they refused to give her permission to go on vacation. In their statement, they claimed Baja locked herself inside her room for three days and was later found dead inside the toilet near broken tiles.

According to Garcia, they did not know where to go for assistance since even the Department of Foreign Affairs did not know of Genia's death.

The family decided to ask help from Migrante, an international alliance of OFW organizations and their families.

Garcia said that she and her entire family are not convinced that Genia committed suicide.

The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and the DFA had assured the Baja family that they will continue to investigate Genia's death.

DEADLY ACCIDENT

Galo was driving his pick-up under abnormally scorching sun on his way from Al-Jourf to the Ar-Ar Airport in Riyadh when a front tire of his vehicle exploded, resulting in a tragic crash.

The wheel exploded to the pressure of the extraordinary climatic heat wave that scaled over 50 degrees Celsius in Saudi on the day of the deadly accident, according to an information from Galo's wife Victoria to her parents-in-law back home.

The tragedy occurred while Galo's wife and their two young kids were staying with him on a vacation right in Riyadh.

First district Rep. Edgar Chatto, who helped in bringing home Galo and Baja, cited the migrant OFWs for their great contribution to the economy of their homeland.

Chatto agreed with 3rd district Rep. Adam Relson Jala to pay the funeral expenses here for Baja, whose poor parents visited the congressman in his house here just to thank him before they sped with their dead daughter to Sierra-Bullones. (With reports from Ven Arigo)