First Pinoy casualty in Japan quake identified

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine embassy in Tokyo confirmed the first Filipino casualty in the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit the northeast region of Japan last March 11after the remains of a Filipina and her daughter were identified.

In a report to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), the embassy said the Fukushima Iwaki Central Police headquarters reported to the Philippine Honorary Consulate in Morioka that the remains of Grace Agnes Oprecio-Hiruta, 45, was identified by her husband Masahiro Hiruta.

The search and rescue team discovered the body of the Filipina inside the house of a certain Suzuki on March 19 in Iwaki City, Fukushima.

The cause of death is tsunami-related.

The Filipina’s daughter Maria, 12, also perished.

The DFA said the family of Grace Agnes in Parañaque City had been apprised of the incident.

The embassy team is coordinating with her relatives and is providing them appropriate assistance.

“We express our sincere condolences to the family,” said Philippine Ambassador to Japan Manuel Lopez.

Malacañang, through deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte, also expressed its sympathies to the family of the victims.  

Acting Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario instructed the dispatch of augmentation teams to assist the Philippine embassy in Tokyo in ensuring the safety of Filipinos there.

A two-man team headed by Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Special and Ocean Concerns Jose Brillantes and DFA Office of Asian and Pacific Affairs executive director Maynard Montealegre flew to Japan Friday to help assess the situation on the ground and to revalidate the contingency plan to make it more efficient.

The embassy and the consulates also continue to maintain close contact with city and prefectural governments, and have full personnel complements to provide assistance.

Pinoys losing jobs in Japan

In Manila, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said a number of Filipino workers in Japan have lost their jobs as a result of the twin calamities.

Labor Undersecretary Danilo Cruz said they received a report that 16 Filipino welders employed at a ship building company Isinomaki in Miyagi prefecture were rendered jobless after the tsunami destroyed their company.

“The Yamanishi Corp. employing the Filipinos folded up, but only one of the 16 have expressed desire to return home while the rest said they want to stay to look for new employment,” Cruz said. “The workers were unable to complete their contract because of the recent calamity. This is the first report of displacement that we have received from Japan so far.”

Although the number of retrenched workers could still go up in the next few days, Cruz expressed optimism that the disaster would have minimal impact on the employment of Filipino workers in that country.

He said 20,000 Filipino sailors on board Japanese-owned vessels were not based in Japan and are unlikely to be affected.

He said majority of Filipinos in Japan were employed in ship building and manufacturing companies.

“The area hit by the quake and tsunami is an agricultural and not an industrial area, thus the disaster won’t have a big impact on our workers,” Cruz said.

He said about 6,000 Filipino workers are currently employed in ship building and manufacturing companies. Majority of the over 200,000 Filipinos in Japan are already permanent residents.

The Philippines used to deploy an average of 80,000 Filipino entertainers to Japan annually and when the government there imposed visa restrictions years ago, some of them married Japanese nationals and became permanent residents.

Water for tsunami victims

In a related development, Philippines Airlines (PAL) yesterday shipped some 70,000 bottles of Absolute distilled water from Asia Brewery Inc. (ABI) to Japan as part of the flag carrier’s donation for earthquake and tsunami victims.

The first shipment of 70,000 bottles was part of the 700,000 bottles donated by ABI to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

Hubert Tan, ABI VP for Marketing and PAL Foundation executive director Carmen Sarmiento supervised the cargo loading.

The shipment was in compliance with the instruction of PAL chairman Lucio Tan, who ordered the immediate shipment of potable water for Japan’s quake victims.

PAL’s country manager in Japan Barazel Salazar will receive the bottled water on behalf of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which in turn will handle the distribution to calamity stricken areas in northern Japan.

PAL is accepting disaster relief supplies for free transport to Japan on space-available basis on any of its regular flights to the calamity-battered nation.

The priority items include medicine, flashlights and heavy duty pocket knives, water purification tablets, waterproof lightweight tents, sleeping mats and folding camp stoves (without LPG), compact high nutrition value food items, light weight thermal blankets, windbreakers, sweaters and thick socks in good condition, among others. – Mayen Jaymalin, Rudy Santos