2 Pinay supermarket workers in Haiti still unaccounted for

MANILA, Philippines - Two Filipina workers in the collapsed supermarket in Haiti are still unaccounted for.

Philippine Ambassador to Havana Macarthur Corsino said yesterday Grace Fabian and Geraldine Lalican were trapped at the Caribbean Supermarket in Port-au-Prince where they were working.

He added that Philippine Honorary Consul to Haiti Fitzgerald Brandt is supervising recovery efforts for the two Filipinos.

Corsino led the fifth and last batch of 32 Filipinos who arrived from Haiti yesterday morning at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Executive director Enrico Fos of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), representatives from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, and the victims’ families welcomed the repatriates.

“We are glad that all of the Filipinos who signified their intention of coming home are now with us. These Filipinos will be receiving assistance from government agencies, just like any repatriate,” said DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos.

Representatives from the Department of Social Welfare and Development will provide psychosocial assistance and help victims get over the trauma.

The total number of Filipinos already repatriated from Haiti is now 63.

The DFA said repatriations are a major component in the plan of action approved at the meeting of the Philippine Task Force for Recovery, Relief, Assistance and Repatriation in Haiti.

The plan also includes the $50,000 humanitarian assistance the Philippines extended to Haiti and the deployment of the Department of Health (DOH)-led medical team to Port-au-Prince.

Meanwhile, the 21-man DOH medical team will continue to look after the medical needs of Haitians and Filipinos.

The team is assigned at the Hospitalier Eliazar Germain in Rue Pan America, Port-au-Prince.

A sub-group of the medical team is also providing care and minor surgeries at the Stade Sylvio Cator, a football stadium used as an evacuation center for thousands of families near Hospitalier.

The psychosocial group visited and provided services to Filipinos, most of whom are settled in tents in designated areas for fear of earthquake aftershocks.        – Pia Lee Brago