Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Friday sent sympathies and condolences to the family of a
Filipino worker killed in a recent attack at the United Nations facilities in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Jossie Esto, 40, worked for United Nations Volunteers Program before she was killed by Taliban militants storming a U.N. guest house in the heart
of Kabul this Wednesday. Five other U.N. foreign staffers and six civilians died in the attack.
"The President has directed the Department of Foreign Affairs to immediately attend to the case, take care of the victim and also of course the family," Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said in a briefing.
Esto was a former teacher who worked as an electoral officer and civic education officer in the Philippines before serving as a UN volunteer in
Liberia, Timor-Leste and Nepal. She had been in Afghanistan for just over a year and was among several UN volunteers working with the United Nations Development Program/ Enhancing Legal and Electoral Capacity for Tomorrow (UNDP/ELECT) Project. It is the primary vehicle through which the international community supports elections in Afghanistan, local media said.
Esto is the fourth Filipino U.N. staff members killed in recent terrorist attacks. The other three were killed in Pakistan, Iraq and Algeria.