6 January 2006 – Acting Head of Post Irene Susan B. Natividad of the Philippine Consulate General in Honolulu, USA, clarified that the family of deceased Filipino-American US Army Sergeant Myla L. Maravillosa – her mother Estelita Maravillosa, aunts Laurencia Lumayag and Bernardita Rodriguez, and cousin Darlene Rodriguez – will arrive in Manila tomorrow, 7 January 2006, at 9:40 p.m. from Honolulu on board Continental Airlines flight CO 1 and will proceed to Tagbilaran City, Bohol, the following day aboard Philippine Airlines flight PR 175 to make arrangements for Sgt. Maravillosa’s burial there.

Ms. Natividad said the remains of Sgt. Maravillosa will arrive directly to the Philippine and then to Bohol from Dover, Delaware state, USA, at a later date as the US Army is still completing documentary requirements for the release and return of the remains to the Philippines. (This corrects the earlier Press Release SFA-AGR-010-65, 5 January 2006).

As Sgt. Maravillosa was a US citizen, the US Department of Defense had arranged the funeral requirements.

Sgt. Maravillosa was a resident of Wahiawa, Hawaii, and was a Bohol-born Filipina-American assigned to the US Army Reserve 203rd Military Intelligence Battalion.  She died from wounds sustained from an insurgent attack by a rocket-propelled grenade on 24 December 2005 while on a routine patrol near Hawijah in northern Iraq. (Please see Press Release SFA-AGR-919-05, 29 December 2005, for the background).

Ms. Natividad added that the Consulate had also conveyed to Mrs. Estelita Maravillosa the Secretary’s message of condolence, and Mrs. Maravillosa expressed her appreciation for the Consulate’s assistance and concern for her and her family.  END