The remains of two Filipinas who were killed in Cyprus by a former army captain arrived in the Philippines on Saturday evening, according to a statement released by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
The bodies of Marry Rose Infante (aka Mary Rose Tiburcio) and Maricar Arquiola arrived in Manila and were received by their families and DFA officials. A native of Isabela province, Infante worked as a domestic worker in Cyprus for 13 years. Aqruiola, a native of Ilocos Sur, worked for four, reported ABS-CBN News.
Infante’s daughter, Sierra Graze Seucalliuc, who was killed with her mother, was brought to Romania upon the request of her father, reported The Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The corpse of another victim, Arian Palanas Lozano, is still in Cyprus and the DFA have yet to confirm when her remains will be brought to the Philippines. The DFA said that they initially thought that the Filipinas were merely missing and were not victims of a violent crime.
All victims were killed by Nikos Metaxas, 35, who was convicted in June to seven life sentences after he pleaded guilty to killing several women. He is believed to be Cyprus’ first serial killer. Each life sentence he received is equivalent to 25 years and five of those life terms will run consecutively.
Aside from the Filipinas, his other victims were Romanian Livia Bunea, 36, her daughter Elena Natalia Bunea, 8, and Nepali Ashita Khadka Bista.
Authorities believe that the victims were killed from September 2016 to August 2018 and that Metaxes met them through online dating sites. The women and children were initially reported missing years ago but the police allegedly failed to investigate their disappearance. As a consequence, Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades sacked then-chief of police Zacharias Chrysostomou in May. The country’s minister of justice Ionas Nicolaou, who was responsible for the country’s police force, also ended up resigning in the same month.
Metaxes’ crimes were discovered only in April when Infante’s cadaver was found at an abandoned mining site in the town of Mitsero following a heavy downpour. The police tracked Metaxes down by referring to the messages Infante sent to him online. He initially denied he was involved in the killings but later confessed and showed where he hid the bodies of his victims.
Because most of the victims were foreigners working as domestic workers, the case also led to a national discussion of how migrants are treated in the country, where many of them are paid very little despite working 14 hours a day.
