The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) will shoulder the repatriation of the remains of the overseas Filipino worker (OFW) couple, Leomer and Erika Joyce Lagradilla, who drowned while having their honeymoon in the Maldives.
Leomer’s sister said that they have met with DFA officials to discuss the unfortunate incident, as cited by a GoGetFunding page, which was created in an effort to raise funds for the repatriation of the couple’s remains.
During the meeting, DFA assured the victims’ families that they will be extending help in bringing the remains of the couple home.
“Accordingly, DFA will shoulder the expenses in sending Eka and Leomer’s remains back home,” a portion of the page reads.
Following the news, the creator of the funding page, Raymond Adofina, said that they will no longer accept donations from the page.
“In connection to this, we would like to let you know that we have decided to stop accepting donations as we believe that due to the mentioned optimistic progress of this case, we no longer serve the purpose of creating a fundraising campaign anymore,” Adofina said.
“We can now have something to hold onto knowing that there’s a hopeful promise from our govt’s end,” he added.
As of 11:30 a.m. (Manila time), a total of Php220,544 have been raised from the page while Php96,577 have been raised from online efforts bringing the total donations collected to Php317,121.
Rest assured that all proceeds will be given to the family of Eka and Leomer”, Adofina said.
