ALAMINOS CITY—She was a picture of devastation coming home but this was all she wanted to feel — being back with her loved ones and feeling the warmth of love all around her once more-especially from a caring and concerned city mayor.

Cecilia Lagman, a resident of barangay Victoria here is back home after working in Beirut, Lebanon for two-years with great assistance from Mayor Hernani Braganza.

Narrating her ordeal, Lagman said she was forced by her employer to sign up another term of contract against he will. She disclosed that she is yet to receive her originally agreed upon salary of 200 U.S. dollars a month.

Lagman is, however, still hoping that she will get what is due her with the help of the national government and Mayor Braganza.
Lagman’s aunt, Linda dela Cruz, said they approached Braganza and asked for his intervention as they knew he has good friends from the national government.

“We also heard that the Mayor had been helping so many OFWs seeking his utmost assistance,” said dela Cruz, councilwoman of barangay Sabangan.

For the past four years, the mayor had worked out for the immediate repatriation of at least nine OFWs to the Philippines.

Six of these are Eufemio Camba, Concepcion Tamboa, Taquel Cruz, Jocelyn Rosales, Madonna Leandado and Jennifer Perez, all from Alaminos.

Three other OFWs namely Jerla Tolentino, Janice Soriano and Evelyn Pascua are from the towns of Mangatarem, Bani and Bolinao, respectively.

Braganza thanked anew President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto G. Romulo for helping send home Lagman and the other OFWs.

He also thanked the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA), the Department of Overseas, the Department of Labor and Employment and the Philippine Embassy in Lebanon for helping Lagman.