Pinoys in Haiti now safe - DFA

MANILA, Philippines - Six months after the earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince in Haiti, Filipinos living there are safe and back at work.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said a team from the Philippine embassy in Cuba, headed by Ambassador MacArthur Corsino, held a six-day visit to Port-au-Prince and Santo Domingo to check on the condition of Filipinos in quake-stricken areas.

The visit was a follow-up of an investigative mission to look into the security, welfare, accommodations and job situation of Filipinos in that country, the DFA said.

A magnitude seven earthquake hit the country last Jan. 12 killing 300,000 Haitians.

A Philippine Rescue-Recovery-Repatriation Task Force under Corsino was formed to repatriate 63 Filipinos from Port-au-Prince, through the Dominican Republic.

Accompanied by Philippine honorary consul Fitzgerald Brandt, Filipino community president Francisco Bagadiong, and vice consul Jason Anasarias, Corsino inspected several dwelling-compounds of overseas Filipino workers and held dialogues with them.

They also convened a meeting of top Filipino leaders and officials of the Philippine UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti.

“Practically all Filipinos who had stayed behind are once again gainfully employed, mostly in supermarkets, warehouses, textile-garments firms and a number work in well-paying jobs with UN and other international organizations,” the DFA reported.