1,000 Japanese nationals arriving daily at NAIA

MANILA, Philippines -  Over a thousand Japanese nationals have been coming to the country every day through the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) terminals in various flights from Japan.

The increase in arrivals came after the powerful earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan last March 11 and after it raised its radioactivity alert to level 5 at its nuclear plant in Fukushima which has been badly damaged due to the disaster.

Immigration Airport Operations Division (AOD) chief Ynn Pelia said they have noticed that the arrivals of Japanese increased after the incident, as compared to the number of arrivals in previous months.

Medical doctors at the NAIA said they don’t have the necessary instrument or machine that can detect at the point of entry incoming passengers affected by nuclear radiation.

Human quarantine doctor Vicenta Vasquez said, “The only thing we can do at the moment is to refer them to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) or the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) which have the facility.”

Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) assistant general manager Antonio Bautista, meantime, said the DOST has its own monitoring system and as far as their observation is concerned, there is no risk of the Philippines being affected by the radioactive plume.