Previous Story
Worker wants to be reunited with family in RP
|
Posted on Feb 08 2009
A foreign worker who has been on Saipan for 23 years is appealing for help to be reunited with his family whom he hasn’t seen since 1986.
Victoriano J. Cernal, now 65, said he has six children—Jun, Jen, Jane, Jenny, Jomar and Vicmar—in the Philippines but they have not spoken to him for years.
His last telephone conversation with them was in 2004.
Cernal said he has been sending mails to his family’s last known address but he has not received a single letter from them. His phone calls have also been unanswered.
Cernal said his house is located in front of Villa Regina Condominium at the Divine Mercy Compound in Pasig City, Metro Manila.
Anyone who may be able to help Cernal reunite with his children is asked to call (670) 234 0780, care of Mayeth and Tony.
Cernal, who is known to many as “Mang Vic,” came to Saipan in 1986 to work as a carpenter for $1.50 an hour. He now works as a farmer.
He didn’t want to say how he ended up not visiting his children since he left the Philippines in 1986, and said he is not angry with them.
Ronnie Doca, president of the Pilipino Contract Workers Association, Pilcowa, brought the story of Cernal to the Philippine media’s attention last year. He hopes that a renewed focus on Cernal’s story will help him finally be able to communicate with his family this year.
“We hope he’ll be able to talk with his children and eventually be able to go back home to them. He’s already old and I think that’s his wish before something happens to him,” said Doca.
Cernal lives in a red tin house in Chalan Piao all by himself. He did not marry the mother of his six children back home.
