The Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday vowed to seek justice for Mary Anne Daynolo, a Filipino worker in Abu Dhabi who went missing for 10 months and was found dead last January.
“UAE (United Arab Emirates) police arrested the murder suspect-a colleague of Ms. Daynolo—who confessed to crime. We’ll leave no stone unturned for justice,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said.
The agency, through the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs, is in coordination with Daynolo’s next of kin and Abu Dhabi authorities on the ongoing criminal investigation surrounding her death.
“The DFA extends its deep condolences to the family and assures them of the Philippine government’s continuing guidance, support and assistance in their time of grief and in the anticipated judicial process,” it said.
Daynolo left Manila for Abu Dhabi in February 2018 and was supposed to return to the Philippines in July 2020 for a vacation. She was reported missing on March 4, 2020 by one of her siblings who also work in the UAE.
Local authorities in the UAE conducted a full-blown investigation that led to the arrest of the murder suspect who eventually confessed to the crime.
The suspect, a Ugandan national identified only as “Paul” and currently under police custody, was Daynolo’s colleague at the hotel they were working in.
Daynolo’s body, which bore a knife wound in the neck, was reportedly found in an “advanced stage of decomposition” in one of the areas of the hotel where she was working last month.