Pregnant Filipina beaten to death by Malaysian hubby

On Monday night, siblings and relatives of a pregnant Filipino allegedly beaten to death by her Malaysian husband wept at an airport as her body arrived in Manila.

The late Vivian Caromata, 32, landed in a casket at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport around 9.30pm, and was collected by her family accompanied by a contingent from Migrante International, an NGO that advances the interests of Filipinos working and/or living overseas.

Migrante held a candlelight vigil and set up placards calling for justice for Caromata, whose husband Nicky Yiew had allegedly been beating her up the past months after she confronted him of his extra-marital affair.

The group also vowed to monitor the progress of the investigation and trial in Malaysia as well as efforts by the Philippine Embassy in Kuala Lumpur in securing a conviction for Yiew, who was arrested by the police.

Media reports said Caromata died on June 4, when Yiew, who did not want the child she was heavy with, hit her on the abdomen. While the couple had amicably agreed to separate, Caromata unexpectedly became pregnant with their third child.

Gary Martinez, president of Migrante, said the Caromata family “felt frustrated” that embassy officials were not so helpful in contacting Yiew’s relatives, in order to establish communication with the victim’s children.

“They are already there in Malaysia, they should have made efforts to get the children,” Martinez said of the embassy officials. “Vivian’s family would have to call long distance just to get in touch with her husband’s relatives.”

Caromata and Yiew got married in 2008, three years after they met in Manila. Then they settled in Johor Baru, capital of the southern Malaysian state of Johor, with Yiew working as a salesman and Caromata becoming a full-time housewife.

The victim’s younger brother Jayson said the Caromata family in the Philippines did not know that his sister, whose daughters by Yiew are aged 7 and 5, had suffered some beatings from her husband.

He added that it was his sister’s friends in Malaysia who posted information on her Facebook account, hoping that this would reach her family in San Antonio town, part of Nueva Ecija, a landlocked province on the Philippines’ largest island of Luzon.

Now the Caromata family would like Yiew to allow the children, who are in the custody of their Malaysian grandmother following their father’s arrest, to come to the Philippines and attend their mother’s burial.

“We wish you would not deprive my sister of peace,” Jayson was quoted by the ‘Philippine Daily Inquirer’ as saying, addressing his appeal to Yiew. “We wish you will let them come here and accompany her to her final resting place.”

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