8 years on, Philippines yet to claim Filipino seafarer's remains from Somalia

Rep. Brian Poe Llamanzares (FPJ Panday Bayanihan party-list) addresses Department of Foreign Affairs officials during a budget hearing at the House of Representatives on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026.

Llamanzares' office via FB

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Foreign Affairs has vowed to send fresh instructions to the Philippine embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, to press Somali authorities to return the remains of a Filipino seafarer who died more than eight years ago, after its latest request went unanswered.

Sam Dela Cruz, a 25-year-old seafarer registered with manning agency GMM Global Maritime, died of cardiopulmonary arrest in Somalia on July 28, 2018. His remains have yet to be brought back to the Philippines. 

The issue was brought up during Thursday's 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 what progress had been made to repatriate Dela Cruz' remains.

The DFA said its attempts since 2018 to return Dela Cruz' remains have stalled in the absence of a Philippine mission in Somalia and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dela Cruz' burial was carried out immediately under Somalia's Islamic Sharia law before the family could weigh in.

Context reported in 2025 that a burial request was filed with a Somali court the day after Dela Cruz's death. The agency he was under, GMM Global maritime, no longer appears in a Singapore online business directory, "which can mean it has ceased operations or changed names," the report stated. 

"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."

Because the Philippines has no mission in Somalia, the case has been 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 reached out to Somali authorities in November 2018 and located Dela Cruz's burial site in Bosaso, roughly 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.

Poa 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," Poe said.

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