“He had helped many of us Filipinos in the Eastern Province. He was like a father to all of us. When we had problems we approached him either for advice or for help,” Mary Jane Tupas, nursing director at the Mohammad Dossary Hospital in Alkhobar, told Arab News.

The same sentiment was expressed by John Leonard Monterona, Migrante Middle East regional coordinator, who said, “We the entire Filipino community in the Kingdom, not only those in the Eastern Province where he was based, are saddened by his passing.” It is a great loss, he said.

Ana, Joe's wife who is an administrative assistant at the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in the Eastern Region (POLO-CRO), told Arab News that she arrived at their place in Alkhobar at 5 p.m. on Thursday and a Filipino approached her to ask if she knew the victim.

“When I arrived, I saw him lying on the ground and was told that he was still alive. He was rushed to hospital,” she said. Joe, however, expired at about 5:20 p.m.

She said he had just visited a friend and was driving to park his car near their house when “he hit a concrete ladder.”

“The impact could have been very strong because the driver's seat was dislocated. Fear could have gripped him and he tried to get out of the car. It was at that time that he could have suffered a heart attack,” she said, adding that the victim had undergone a bypass operation in the Philippines many years back.

Joe, who had worked with a leading Saudi daily for almost 30 years, was a business editor of the Evening News before he came to the Kingdom. He was a founder, member and adviser of various Filipino organizations. Joe hailed from Narvacan, Ilocos Sur, north of Manila.