OFW leaves Hong Kong in a box after 21 years

By Vir B. Lumicao

Guests view Cabansag's remains

Corazon Cabansag, the domestic helper who died on Feb 23 and was falsely rumored to have donated her vital organs, made her final voyage home in a wooden casket on Monday, Mar 6.

Scores of people, including her employers and relatives, paid their last respects on Mar 5 to Cabansag, 53, in a public viewing at the Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital chapel in Chaiwan.

An officer of the Consulate's assistance to nationals section told The SUN that Cabansag's remains were flown to Manila on Philippine Airlines Flight 301 that left at 11am.

About 100 mourners went to the hospital chapel for the hour-long public viewing of Cabansag’s remains from 3pm to 4pm on Sunday. Among them were her elderly Hong Kong employers from Shaukeiwan and their 30-year-old daughter, two of Cabansag’s aunts who flew in from Manila, other relatives who work here, and her brethren in the Iglesia Ni Cristo.

Cabansag’s coffin, placed in a wooden casket with her personal documents in a sealed manila envelope taped securely on the lid, was rolled back into the hospital morgue after the viewing. A Philippine Airlines bar-coded sticker bore the identity of the deceased.

Cabansag, single, collapsed in the lift of her employers’ residential block in Shaukeiwan on Feb 18 and was taken to Eastern Hospital where she later died of brain hemorrhage.

The deceased helper became the subject of rumors that her internal organs would be harvested for organ donation after she became brain-dead on Feb 23.

But consular officers belied the wild talk, saying it was not possible because the hospital did not seek clearance from the consulate for such a procedure on a Filipino patient.