Phl embassy in Tokyo sends team to northeast Japan to assist Pinoys

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine embassy in Tokyo has already sent a team to northeastern Japan to check on the condition of Filipinos there and extend assistance in the aftermath of the 8.9 magnitude quake and tsunami that hit the country last Friday.

Philippine Ambassador to Japan Manuel Lopez said that the team would be able to affirm previous reports that there were no Filipino casualties in the disaster.

“We are sending a team there to contact local authorities and our own community leaders and to inquire if there are Filipino casualties,” Lopez said yesterday in an interview with Philippine media.

Lopez also issued assurances that Filipinos in Tokyo, Osaka and the western regions of Japan are relatively safe. The embassy’s attention is focused on the 4,500 Filipinos in the northeast region, including Sendai City.

The embassy team, which departed Tokyo via land travel yesterday, is in a convoy with representatives from the Indonesian, Thai, Brunei and Malaysian embassies.

Some 30 Filipino seafarers brought to Fukushima by their company after the quake are safely housed in a hotel and are duly cared for, the embassy said.

“Our embassy team will link up with them shortly,” Lopez said.

Earlier, the embassy issued an advisory to the Filipino community to take necessary precautions and report to the embassy or the Philippine consulate nearest them any incident of injuries or fatalities among Filipinos.

The advisory also reiterated the advice of Japanese authorities for them to proceed to city halls or fire stations in cases of emergency so they can receive immediate instructions and care.

Subways and trains in Tokyo are back to normal operations starting Saturday. Elevated highways are also passable. Most communication services are still down, but Internet services remain operational.

In Manila, upon the direction of Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, the DFA Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs has activated a crisis management team for families who have Filipino relatives in Japan.

Undersecretary Esteban Conejos is leading the effort in support of the embassy in Tokyo and the consulates in Japan.

Philippine embassy officers and staff in Tokyo, as well as those in the consulate general in Osaka headed by Consul General Maria Lourdes Ramiro-Lopez and the honorary consulates in Sapporo, Morioka, Nagoya and Naha, are reaching out to Filipino community leaders and members, and are quickly responding to requests for assistance or information.

In Osaka, the consulate general there reported that so far there are no reports of any casualty or injury among Filipino nationals in the 28 prefectures under its jurisdiction.

The consulate covers Aichi, Ehime, Fukui, Fukuoka, Gifu, Hiroshima, Hyogo, Ishikawa, Kagawa, Kagoshima, Kochi, Kumamoto, Kyoto, Mie, Miyazaki, Nagasaki, Nara, Oita, Okayama, Osaka, Saga, Shiga, Shimane, Tokushima, Tottori, Toyama, Wakayama and Yamaguchi.

The embassy and the consulates are maintaining close contact with city and prefectural governments, and have full personnel complement in place to undertake needed actions.

The embassy hotline numbers are (00813) 5562-1570, (00813) 5562-1577 and (00813) 5562-1590. Its email address is [email protected]

The consulates’ hotlines are as follows: (06) 6910-7881 for the Philippine Consulate General in Osaka, (011) 614-8090 for the Honorary Consulate in Sapporo, and (019) 629-9139 for the Honorary Consulate in Morioka.

The hotline numbers at the DFA-OUMWA’s Crisis Management Center are 834-4646 and 834-4580. Requests for information may also be sent through e-mail address [email protected]

Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) administrator Carmelita Dimzon said they are ready to assist relatives of Filipinos affected by the Japan earthquake and tsunami last Friday.

Dimzon said there are some 2,600 active members in Tokyo, Sendai and Miyagi from around 7,800 active members in Japan.

“Our welfare officers have standing instructions that in times of distress they should immediately reach out to the members of the OWWA community in their jurisdiction,” said Dimzon. “Our members are also asked to contact the OWWA welfare officers or the Philippine Overseas Labor Offices for assistance.”

She said that relatives of OWWA members in Japan may go to Pasay City to avail themselves of free calls under its “Libreng Tawag” facilities starting today.

Heed advice

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte, meantime, urged overseas Filipino workers based in Japan, especially those in critical areas, to heed the call of local authorities there so that they will be out of harm’s way.

She was in particular referring to the expanded distance by which the Japanese government had ordered an evacuation in Fukushima, from those living within the 10-kilometer radius that was extended to 16 kilometers.

“Rest assured we are keeping close contact with our embassy in Japan. The information is starting to come in. Hopefully, we will have an accounting (of all our OFWs there),” Valte said over government-run radio dzRB.

She also said President Aquino - who had just ended Friday his three-day state visit to Singapore when the 8.9 earthquake hit Sendai in Japan – was very much satisfied with the way the government handled the situation. – With Delon Porcalla, Rudy Santos, Celso Amo