For one Bay Area Filipino American family, a five-year journey for justice may be close to an end.

In October of 2000, Claire Joyce Tempongko was stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend, Tari Ramirez. Ramirez stabbed Tempongko with a kitchen knife at her home in San Francisco in front of her two young children.

Ramirez avoided arrest for nearly six years before finally being apprehended in Cancun, Mexico last month. Ramirez had been living with a family while working at a hotel under an alias.

The conclusion to this case is still likely to be up to six months away, with the complications of the extradition process still looming.

According to Marily Mondejar, the president of the Filipina Women’s Network (FWN), one of the main issues that will delay the extradition process is the Mexican government’s demand for the District Attorney not to seek the death penalty. Ramirez will not be given a trial date until proper paperwork is filed and an agreement is struck between the Mexican and United States governments.

“Maybe now we will have justice,” said Clara Tempongko, mother of Claire. Clara said she was prepared to wait as long as 30 years for Ramirez’s arrest and was rejoiced to find out her wait would only last less than six.

Throughout the years that Clara prayed for Ramirez’s capture, she decided she would not stand by idly in the memory of her daughter. Instead, she enlisted the support of her community to ensure that Claire’s death would not be in vain.

Claire’s murder spoke to a universal struggle to protect women in domestic abuse cases. Claire had been working within the legal system for 18 months in an attempt to defend herself against Ramirez’s attacks.

Less than two months prior to her death, Tempongko was nearly strangled to death by Ramirez and yet nothing was done to effectively protect Tempongko.

“The domestic violence response in this case was, unfortunately, inadequate,” said Speaker Pro Tempore Leland Yee. “It is imperative that we continue to further implement the necessary system changes to ensure that those who are crying out for help are heard. We must have an adequate communication plan between police, the district attorney's office, the probation department and the courts. By working more cooperatively we can help prevent many of these crimes from happening again.”

Believing that the City of San Francisco was negligent in their response to her daughter’s numerous complaints of Ramirez, Clara sued the city and was awarded $500,000 — prompting a string of changes made to the city’s protocol for domestic abuse cases.

Behind the efforts of the FWN, San Francisco has implemented improvements from the manner in which cases are dealt with from the 911 call to the actual trial. One crucial change is that the 911 dispatcher no longer encourages a woman reporting an attack to remain on the phone if it would be in her best interest to stay alert against her attacker.

Mondejar said that such an adjustment may seem small, but these types of changes demonstrate a more educated understanding of the nature of domestic violence and could very well save lives. Another change is that upon the conclusion of a day in trial, the victim is given 15 minutes to exit the court before his or her attacker can.

“The key thing is that the death of a Filipina woman has really effected change and I think that that’s very important,” said Mondejar. “Her mother really has kept this alive and kept all of us inspired and motivated to keep this going, but it doesn’t need to be the murder of a Filipina to get our attention. That’s why we need a strong Filipina group behind this cause to keep the wheels turning and continue to improve the system.”