Philippines embassy in Seoul monitoring OFWs amid increased tension

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine embassy in South Korea is on alert to ensure the safety of Filipinos amid reports of increased tension in the Korean Peninsula, Malacañang said yesterday.

Based on reports, tensions have escalated since South Korea accused rival North Korea of shelling a border town on Thursday and retaliated with dozens of artillery rounds.

North Korea has threatened further action unless Seoul ends loudspeaker broadcasts of anti-North Korean propaganda at the border.

“We have quite a big population in South Korea and our embassy led by Ambassador Raul Hernandez is already on alert and is keeping their ears to the ground to see what the developments are. And as the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) said, we are closely monitoring these developments even as we continue to call for restraint on both sides,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said over radio dzRB.

“We have a good protocol in South Korea in as far as the evacuation and the information network of our OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) are concerned because we have many Filipino groups there,” she said.

Valte said the Filipino groups were in touch with the embassy and “personally, firsthand, I have seen their good coordination.”

She said her first advice would be to follow the information being disseminated to them by the embassy and to strictly adhere to these reminders for their own safety.

“If you remember, we had plans in place. I think this was sometime back in 2011, early on in President Aquino’s term, when there was also a similar exchange of fire between the two,” Valte said, adding that evacuation protocols had been established.

“Thankfully at that time, it did not need to be executed. It served as practice also on our part. In a sense, we really saw the weaknesses and had done something and (put) in place the (protocol). So it is just a matter of activating the protocol,” Valte said.

Asked about the need for a travel advisory, she said there was no need to issue one at this time.

“We feel that it would be enough really to continue to issue the statements through the media and, of course, our networks among and between the OFW groups in South Korea have already been alerted,” she said.