Solution:1
UTF-8 friendly version of the simple function posted above by Gino:
function stripAccents($str) {
return strtr(utf8_decode($str), utf8_decode('àáâãäçèéêëìíîïñòóôõöùúûüýÿÀÁÂÃÄÇÈÉÊËÌÍÎÏÑÒÓÔÕÖÙÚÛÜÝ'), 'aaaaaceeeeiiiinooooouuuuyyAAAAACEEEEIIIINOOOOOUUUUY');
}
Had to come to this because my php document was UTF-8 encoded.
Hope it helps.