08 March 2005 – The Department of Foreign Affairs today announced that as a result of the efforts of the Philippine Embassy in The Hague, the Netherlands, the remains of Filipino Veneranda Paña were finally brought home to Cebu City on Sunday, 06 March 2005.  The shipment of Ms. Paña’s remains has been long awaited by her family in the Philippines, who had feared the worst ever since Ms. Paña stopped all communications with them in 2001.

According to the report of Philippine Ambassador to the Netherlands Romeo A. Arguelles, Ms. Paña was reported missing in the Netherlands since 2001.  In 2002, the friends of Bebe (as Ms. Paña was called by her friends) requested the popular Dutch crime TV program Peter de Vries for an extensive coverage and feature of the Bebe’s disappearance.  This feature by the program Peter de Vries compelled the Dutch Police to reopen Bebe’s case.

The reopened investigation eventually led to the discovery in January 2005 of Ms. Paña’s remains, which were hidden under the house of her Dutch brother-in-law.  This led to the arrest of Ms. Paña’s husband Edwin Tenwinkel as the primary suspect for her death.

Ambassador Arguelles reported that on 15 February, the Philippine Embassy in The Hague received information from the Paña family in Cebu City that Bebe’s remains were turned over to the Tenwinkel family who plans to bury Bebe in the Netherlands on 17 February.  The Paña family urgently requested the Embassy to stop the burial.

Pressed for time, the Philippine Embassy made representations with the Dutch Police and the District Attorney to carry out the request of the Paña family.  The Embassy sought and paid for the services of a Dutch lawyer who filed an application for a court injunction to stop the burial, which the court granted and served just in time on 17 February 2005, the date the Tenwinkel family planned to bury Ms. Paña.    The Paña family received the news of the court injunction with much relief and gratitude.

The Paña family then requested the Philippine Embassy to exert all means to return the body of Bebe to the Philippines.  With the same lawyer, Embassy representatives attended the court hearing on the matter held on 28 February.

On 01 March, the presiding Judge decided that the remains of Ms. Paña should be turned over to the Philippine Embassy in The Hague as the authorized representative in the Netherlands of the Paña family.

Ambassador Arguelles informed the DFA that the Philippine Embassy then made the necessary arrangements so that on 05 March, the remains of Ms. Paña were flown back to the Philippines – a realization of a wish that Bebe expressed to her sister before she disappeared.

The Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs, DFA said that a total of PhP825,000 was spent from the Assistance to National Funds and Legal Assistance Fund of the DFA for the services of the lawyer and other requirements for the return of the remains of Bebe to her relatives in Cebu.  END
 

/jay