UP worker dies on campus

Had it not been the persistence of her deeply concerned elder brother, the death of a University of the Philippines (UP) employee would have gone undetected despite the stench emanating from her room in a dormitory on the Diliman, Quezon City campus.

The body of Josefina Sebastian, 53, a records officer of the UP College of Social Science and Philosophy (CSSP), was found late Tuesday afternoon in her room at the university residence hall on Hardin ng Rosas, Purok Aguinaldo, several days after she failed to show up at work.

This was after her older brother, Mateo Sebastian of the UP Institute of Chemistry, asked for help from the UP Diliman Police (UPDP) in locating her.

“Other tenants at the residence hall thought the smell was coming from garbage. They did not think much of it,” said UPDP investigator Cesar Oliquino.

Sebastian, who was single and lived alone, had a heart ailment, Mateo said.

Oliquino told the Inquirer that he received a call at 3:35 p.m. on Tuesday from Mateo who voiced his concern about his sister.

“He said that he had been calling his sister’s cell phone since May 30 but no one was answering. By Monday, the phone was no longer ringing,” Oliquino said.

Mateo became even more concerned when he called up the CSSP administrative officer and learned that his sister had not reported for work since May 30.

Accompanied by Oliquino and other policemen, Mateo went to the residence hall. Even on the ground floor, they could detect a stench of decay which they traced to his sister’s room on the fourth floor.

Oliquino said that when they broke down the door, they found Sebastian’s badly decomposed body on the bed. “Other tenants in the building were shocked. They did not even realize their neighbor had been dead for several days,” he added.