Julia Christine Botin

Myanmar quake: Wife of missing Filipino hopes husband will come out alive from rubble

Article (news)

ABS-CBN News

Agence France-Presse

<p>MANILA — The wife of a missing overseas Filipino worker in Myanmar on Monday said she hoped that her husband would come out alive from the rubble in Mandalay caused by the powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake that hit the Southeast Asian nation last week.</p><p>Kat Cruz-Aragon said her husband Francis Aragon was staying on the sixth floor of an 11-story condominium building in the city of Mandalay when the quake struck on Friday — the same day she last spoke with Francis, who has only been working as a teacher in Myanmar for 10 months.</p><p>The couple has two children, aged 4 and 2.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/3/31/philippines-not-yet-ready-for-m7-7-quake-ocd-0853">RELATED: Philippines not yet ready for M7.7 quake - OCD</a></div><p>&quot;Hanggang ngayon missing pa rin siya. Wala pang concrete na information kaming makuha kung nandoon pa siya sa loob ng condo o nasaaan siya ngayon,&quot; Kat told TeleRadyo Serbisyo. </p><p>&quot;Praying po kami na sana nakalabas siya nang maayos.&quot;</p><p>&quot;Kung may pagkakataong pumunta, gusto ko siyang puntahan doon ... para makatulong na mahanap siya doon sa Mandalay.&quot;</p><p>In a separate interview, Department of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Migration Affairs Eduardo de Vega said that <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/3/30/4-ofws-reported-missing-after-myanmar-quake-1653">Francis and three other OFWs missing in the aftermath of the Myanmar quake</a> were still unaccounted for.</p><p>De Vega urged the families of the missing OFWs to contact the DFA for updates and assistance, noting that &quot;anything can happen&quot;. </p><p>&quot;We want to see them alive,&quot; he added. </p><p>He said the Philippine government sent contingency teams to help with the rescue efforts.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>RESCUE HOPES FADING</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Hopes were fading Monday of finding more survivors in the rubble of Mandalay, where some residents spent a third night sleeping in the open after a massive earthquake killed at least 1,700 people in Myanmar and neighboring Thailand.</p><p>Rescue efforts were less active in the central Myanmar city of more than 1.7 million people early Monday, but conditions are difficult — with temperatures expected to reach around 40 degrees Celsius.</p><p>The sticky heat has exhausted rescue workers and accelerated body decomposition, which could complicate identification.</p><p>A desperate scene unfolded at a collapsed apartment block in Myanmar&#x27;s second-biggest city on Sunday evening, when rescuers thought they had saved the life of a pregnant woman trapped under the rubble for more than 55 hours.</p><p>They amputated her leg to free her, but after pulling her out she was pronounced dead.</p><p>&quot;We tried everything to save her,&quot; said one of the medical responders, but she had lost too much blood from the amputation.</p><p>Muslim worshipers, meanwhile, gathered near a destroyed mosque in the city on Monday morning for the first prayer of Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that follows the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.</p><p>Funerals for hundreds of victims are also expected to take place on Monday.</p><p>The initial 7.7-magnitude quake struck near Mandalay early Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock.</p><p>The tremors collapsed buildings, downed bridges and buckled roads, with some of the worst destruction seen in central Myanmar.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEOS: </strong></div><div><strong><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Do7t2M5h0ug?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span></strong><br/><br/><strong><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WwhdqgfpE6A?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span></strong></div>

<p>The wife of a missing OFW in Myanmar on Monday said she hoped that her husband would come out alive from the rubble in Mandalay caused by the powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake that hit the Southeast Asian nation last week.</p>

The wife of a missing OFW in Myanmar on Monday said she hoped that her husband would come out alive from the rubble in Mandalay caused by the powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake that hit the Southeast Asian nation last week.