WASHINGTON – Philippine officials were able to track down in Leyte province the elder sister of Fedelina Lugasan, the 83-year-old Filipina who was enslaved and forced into domestic servitude without pay for nearly four decades, Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez said yesterday.
Romualdez said the Philippine government will assist Lugasan’s sister in obtaining a passport and applying for a visa so she could fly to the United States to reunite with her long-missing family member.
“A niece actually came forward and they were able to cross check it and I was informed that Nanay Fedelina has a sister, an older sister, who’s still alive and she lives in Leyte,” Romualdez told reporters.
Lugasan, fondly called Nanay Fedelina, was able to chat with her sister via Skype.
“So they were asking if we could help in getting a visa for the sister because it’s easier for her to come and visit rather than Fedelina go back this time since she is still waiting for the visa, the T Visa, the trafficking visa,” Romualdez said.
“So we’re going to try our best to expedite, to help her get her passport in the first place and then assist her in getting her a US visa to visit her sister.”
A native of Leyte, Nanay Fedelina began working for a Filipino family as a domestic helper in Manila at the age of 16. She was then brought to the US in 1980 when she was 28 and for almost 40 years was forced to work without salary and rest days. She was rescued by US authorities in 2018.
A Filipino couple took her in and is being housed in their home for the elderly. (Mika Dela Paz)
