The body of another Filipino UN peacekeeper was recovered from the rubble of a collapsed building in Haiti, bringing to four the number of Filipinos confirmed killed in the deadly earthquake that struck the Caribbean nation last week. Haiti peacekeeping forces commander Col. Lope Dagoy identified the casualty as Sgt. Janice Arocena, whose body was retrieved from the ruins of Christopher Hotel in Port-au-Prince Wednesday afternoon, Manila time. “We bring you bad news. Yesterday afternoon, the corpse of Sgt. Janice Arocena was found,” Armed Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr. told GMA News Thursday. The victim's family was immediately informed, he said. On January 15, two days after the magnitude-7 earthquake rocked Haiti, Arocena's older sibling posted a plea for help on CNN's iReport. Arocena was a clerk at the Chief of Staff, Central Registry of the Philippine peacekeeping contingent in Haiti. There were 462 recorded Filipinos in Haiti – 290 civilians and 172 military and police peacekeepers. Brawner said the military is teaming up with the Department of Foreign Affairs in addressing the needs of Filipinos there, including providing for their security. Last Wednesday, the military confirmed the recovery of the remains of of Sgt. Eustacio Bermudez, a clerk at the Conduct and Discipline Unit/Force Provo Martial. Earlier, the military also confirmed the deaths of Jerome Yap, a United Nations staff member serving with the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti, and Petty Officer 3 Pearly Panangui. Only two Filipinos are unaccounted for – Grace Fabian and Geraldine Lalican, who remain trapped in the ruins of a supermarket in Haiti's capital. “Only two are missing. They are Filipinos working at the Caribbean Supermarket,” Brawner said. Brawner said in a press briefing at Camp Aguinaldo that the remaining members of the 10th Philippine peacekeeping contingent in Haiti are “no longer directly involved in the rescue and retrieval operations” at the Christopher Hotel. He said “expert rescue teams” from Spain, China, France, Iceland, the United States, Guatemala, Indonesia, and Brazil have taken charge of such operations. Instead, the Philippine team is tasked to transport retrieved bodies from the Christopher Hotel to the logistics base and the Argentina hospital, Brawner said, adding that Filipino troops also helped secure vital UN installations such as the UN Development Program compound against looters.
