Abu Dhabi: A Filipino mother in Abu Dhabi has announced a reward of 20,000 pesos (about Dh1,662) to find the body of her nine-year-old daughter who disappeared when typhoon Haiyan hit the central Philippines on November 8.
Jella Yu, 34, a documentation controller in an oil and gas firm in the capital, lost both daughters - ages nine and eight, and also her mother - in the disaster that claimed more than 6,000 lives in the South East Asian country.
While the body of Shamel Anne, 8, was found immediately, Kasandra Mae Yu Villanueva is still missing and feared dead.
Seeking closure
“I want a closure though sometimes I have hopes she may be found alive. I have to find her body to be sure that my daughter will rest in peace in heaven,” Yu told XPRESS.
She said she announced the 20,000 peso reward as a last resort to trace her daughter’s remains.
“We have distributed posters carrying pictures of my daughter in Tacloban where we live. I just hope the money will work as an incentive and prompt people to search for her,” said Yu.
Yu’s sister Naicy Yu, 45, also lost both daughters, ages 21 and nine, in the typhoon.
“I can only thank God that I brought three of my nine siblings to Abu Dhabi last year. If not, I would have lost more of my family,” said Lu who came to Abu Dhabi in 2009. Yu found a new job a few months ago and was planning to bring her daughters to Abu Dhabi. Kasandra and Shamel were under the care of her 67-year-old mother and her elder sister Jenny.
“I have no reason to live. I do not know what God’s plans are for me. Nothing can fill the void left by my daughters,” she said, holding back tears.
Yu said she reached Tacloban city in San Jose within two days of the tragedy.
“I travelled via Manila and Cebu. When I landed in the Philippines, the first thing I did was to buy groceries, clothes and medicines for my daughters. I thought they would have run out of food. Nobody was willing to drive us to the place because there was large-scale looting going on there,” Yu said.
Dashed hopes
She reached her hometown on November 11 at 4am.
“My brother was surprised to see me as no one expected us to make it through the mayhem. When I asked about my daughters, he started crying. I asked him who was alive and who was dead. He said ‘both of them’. I felt like my whole world had caved in,” said Ju.
She returned to Abu Dhabi on November 19. “I have lost everything I had pinned my hope on. My work, my saving and my life – all were for them, and they are gone now.”
Ju’s last hope is to recover something like a piece of cloth or jewellery from Kasandra’s body just like the tiny gold earring and a jade bracelet she found from her younger daughter and mother, and which she wears in their memory.
