MANILA — President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is extending the Philippine governments “full cooperation” in the United States ongoing investigation on the circumstances that led to the death of US Peace Corps volunteer Julia Campbell.
Press Secretary and concurrent Presidential Spokesperson Ignacio R. Bunye said in a statement this morning the President “is saddened” by the death of the Peace Corps worker.
“The President is saddened by the death of Campbell and the government is extending its full cooperation to the US authorities in investigating the circumstances that led to it,” Bunye said.
“It is unfortunate that a committed and selfless person, who has, based on the work she has done in Sorsogon, obviously grown to love our country, met a tragic end here,” he added.
Campbells body was found Wednesday buried in a shallow grave at a dry creek in Barangay Batad, Ifugao, by one of the 40 locals who volunteered to locate Campbell after she was last seen on April 8 in a hilly area of Barangay Batad.
Campbell, who was from Fairfax, Virginia, was among the 137 US Peace Corps volunteers in the Philippines. She was a journalist for the New York Times and other various newspapers for 15 years when she decided to leave her job after the Sept. 11 World Trade Center bombing.
She served in ecological and educational projects in Southern Luzon since March 2005. Her latest assignment was in Sorsogon in the Bicol region, particularly in projects for the typhoon Remings victims.
So far, more than 8,000 Peace Corps volunteers have served the country since 1961, making the Philippines one of the oldest Peace Corps program beneficiaries in the world. (OPS) davaotoday.com
