Contingency plans in place for Pinoy communities abroad

MANILA, Philippines -  Contingency plans for the Filipino community are in place in case North Korea makes good its threat to fire missiles toward Guam.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday that Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano was on the phone with Consul General Marciano de Borja in Agana and Ambassador Raul Hernandez in Seoul to request updates on the situation in their respective areas of jurisdiction. 

The DFA said both Hernandez and De Borja have given their assurances to the Philippines that their respective contingency plans for Filipinos are in place in case the situation in the Korean Peninsula deteriorates.

Cayetano echoed President Duterte’s calls for both the United States and North Korea to exercise restraint and take the necessary steps to avoid further escalation of the situation. 

There are approximately 65,000 Filipinos in South Korea and another 42,835 in Guam.

Earlier, the United States left to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations whether to invite again North Korea to the ASEAN Regional Forum next year despite calls not to invite the rogue state to the annual security conference held in Manila last week.

“My understanding, that in terms of invitations like that, the conversations are ongoing,” said US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert.

“We are not a part of ASEAN so we do not have the ability to extend or rescind an invitation, so we would leave that up to ASEAN itself. But those nations all joined us in a pretty condemning statement of the activities on the part of North Korea,” she said.

The state department earlier said the ASEAN meetings in Manila were a good week for diplomacy with the end of the forum coming to a strong condemnation of the North Korea missile tests, “singing from the same hymn book.”

Nauert said the US could see the campaign against North Korea working and the international community is in agreement with Washington and many of its partners and allies on putting additional pressure on Pyongyang.

ARF member states supported the complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner and underscored the importance of creating conditions conducive for dialogue to de-escalate tensions.

Call for self-restraint

Meanwhile, the Philippines renewed its call for self-restraint to ease tension in the Korean Peninsula as Guam and Japan brace for possible missile attacks from North Korea. 

“The Philippines reiterates its call for continued exercise of self-restraint in order to de-escalate the tension and to refrain from actions that may aggravate the situation on the Korean Peninsula,” presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said in a statement. 

North Korea has threatened to launch missiles toward Guam after US President Donald Trump warned the totalitarian state that any threat to his country would be met with “fire and fury.” 

Pyongyang said it would create an “enveloping fire” around Guam, which hosts a US naval and air base and about 7,000 serviceman. Japan has also deployed interceptors along the possible path of North Korea’s missile and is continuously sharing information with the US. 

Abella said the government is coordinating with Filipinos in South Korea and Guam to prepare them for any scenario. 

“The Philippine embassy in Seoul and the Consulate General in Agana have been monitoring the situation closely and working with the Filipino communities in the Republic of Korea and Guam, respectively, to ensure preparedness for any eventuality,” he said. 

ASEAN members have expressed grave concerns on the tensions in the Korean Peninsula, saying they “seriously threaten peace, security and stability in the region and the world.”

“In this regard, we strongly urge the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) to immediately comply fully with its obligations under all relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” ASEAN foreign ministers said in a joint statement during a recently concluded meet in Manila. 

            – With Alexis Romero