By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

THE former L&T security guard who set himself on fire at the Department of Labor a few weeks ago is still under observation at the Commonwealth Health Center’s intensive care unit on a “day-to-day” basis, according to his daughter.
Pabitra Dhimal, 21, said, her 49-year-old father, Buddhi, is recuperating from second and third degree burns and has developed lung problems since being admitted to CHC following the incident that took place in the labor department’s hallway on April 24.
Pabitra Dhimal, who works at 99 Cents Supermart, said that attending physicians cannot tell her exactly how long it will take her father to recover.
She said her father, who was still on a respirator Wednesday nigh, could not open his eyes and was being fed through a tube directly into his stomach.
Pabitra Dhimal said she heard from hospital staffers that once her father’s condition gets a little bit better he may be flown to the Philippines for further treatment.
She was told that CHC is waiting for the patient’s lung conditions to improve.
Buddhi Dhimal suffered second degree burns to the neck, face and arms as well as third degree burns to the chest.
Pabitra Dhimal said she never had any idea that her father could do such a thing.
She said she was asleep when her father left home on that fateful day.
The day before the incident, she heard him saying that he had again failed to see the people he had to meet at the labor department.
She said her father kept going back to Labor to inquire about a temporary work authorization and money awarded to him since he lost his job a year ago.
Pabitra Dhimal, a management student in Nepal, said she is now beginning to find out why her father had discouraged her several times from following him to Saipan.
The eldest of four children, Pabitra Dhimal said she insisted that she wanted to work on Saipan so that she could stand on her own feet and help her father send money to her mother and three siblings.
She said she kept insisting until her father finally agreed to bring her to Saipan in Oct. 2005.
But months after she landed a job here, her father lost his, leaving her no choice but to stay with him.
She said her father never stopped looking for a new job..
A firm had promised her father a job and when this did not materialize, her father decided to return to Nepal.
This was why he kept returning to Labor to inquire about the $5,000 owed him by his former employer, Asia Pacific Investment Corp., pursuant to a Labor order.
Pabitra Dhimal said she has to comfort her mother who cries over the telephone every time she calls home.