A couple and their two children, who were in Barcelona to celebrate the son’s birthday, have asked not to be identified so as not to alarm their relatives in their native Cebu.
The mother was unhurt while the father remains under observation at hospital with a leg injury. The daughter has already been discharged while doctors are continuing to assess if the son needs surgery for a broken thigh bone.
Philippine Honorary Consul Jordi Puig has visited the family in hospital and confirmed that they were out of danger.
It was another Filipino called Naizarein Reyes Nidoy, who just happened to be near the family on the famous Las Ramblas pedestrian avenue, that took them to hospital.
He said: “I was about to run, but I saw a Filipino family was hurt. I ran to them. I carried the daughter first. I helped them. I did not leave them until we got the hospital.”
Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has declared three days of national mourning as police investigate the terror attack.
Speaking today, Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said the carnage had been claimed by the so-called Islamic State. “The Philippines condemns in the strongest terms this disturbing act of terror perpetrated by extremists against innocent men, women, and children in Barcelona,” he said.
“We stand in solidarity with the people of Catalonia and all of Spain and the rest of the world as we fight this common scourge.”
Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said: “Our hearts and prayers go out to the families and loved ones of the innocent victims who perished and those who got injured in Barcelona.”
Police have arrested two suspects, identified as a Spaniard and a Moroccan, but the driver is still on the run.
In a show of defiance, shouts of “no tinc por!” (I am not afraid) have been ringing out across Barcelona’s Plaça de Catalunya where large crowds have gathered.