Filipino Seafarer's Remains Still in Somalia After 8 Years

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has vowed to send fresh instructions to the Philippine embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, to press Somali authorities to return the remains of Sam Dela Cruz, a 25-year-old Filipino seafarer who died in Somalia on July 28, 2018. The DFA has sent multiple diplomatic notes to Somali authorities since 2018, but has yet to receive an official response, according to officials. The issue was brought up during House deliberations on the DFA's proposed 2027 budget, when Rep. Brian Poe Llamanzares (FPJ Panday Bayanihan), vice chair of the House appropriations committee, asked the department about the progress made in repatriating Dela Cruz's remains. DFA officials explained that attempts to repatriate the remains have stalled due to the absence of a Philippine mission in Somalia and the COVID-19 pandemic. Dela Cruz was buried in Somalia under the country's Islamic Sharia law before his family could provide input. His manning agency at the time, GMM Global Maritime, is reportedly no longer listed in a Singapore online business directory, suggesting it may have ceased operations or changed its name. "We understand the immense difficulty and emotional pain the family continues to endure during this prolonged process," Undersecretary Ezzedin Tago, DFA's officer in charge of migrant affairs, told House lawmakers. "The DFA remains committed to supporting the Dela Cruz family." Since the Philippines has no embassy in Somalia, the case is being handled through the Philippine embassy in Nairobi, which holds jurisdiction over the country. The DFA official said the embassy has a record of diplomatic notes sent to the Somali government since 2018, none of which drew an official reply. GMM Global Maritime had reached out to Somali authorities in November 2018 and located Dela Cruz's burial site in Bosaso, approximately 1,000 kilometers from the capital, Mogadishu, according to the DFA. The manning agency secured permits and funding for exhumation and reached a "preliminary agreement with local officials," but negotiations stalled and the exhumation never happened. In 2025, the DFA asked the Nairobi embassy to raise the case again with the Somali embassy there, to relay the department's and family's request to the Somalian government. That, too, went unanswered, Tago said. "With that update, we will reinstruct or send the instructions again to our embassy in Nairobi to meet with the Somali embassy in Nairobi to revive this issue," the DFA official said. Rep. Llamanzares said Somalia's non-response was "not our fault," but said the government should continue to "try its best to bring home the body of our kababayan." "We should not stop knocking at their door to ask for the body back," Llamanzares said. RELATED ON INTERAKSYON: Filipino migrant fisher’s death shows industry abuses