Pinoys in Chile are safe and accounted for, DFA maintains

The Department of Foreign Affairs reiterated its earlier statement that Filipinos working and residing in earthquake-ravaged Chile are “fine" and fully accounted for. “They are fine, based on the report of the embassy there," Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Eduardo Malaya said, reacting to criticism leveled against the Philippine Embassy in Chile for its alleged slow and insufficient response to the disaster. Malaya added there are no updates yet to the February 28 bulletin posted on the agency’s Website, which stated that the 75 Filipinos in the South American country are all “safe." "There are 75 Filipinos in Chile, mostly priests, nuns, engineers, businessmen and spouses of Chilean nationals. There are no Filipino workers deployed in the country," the bulletin further quoted Philippine Ambassador to Chile Consuelo Puyat-Reyes as saying. However, in a Facebook note posted and also sent to GMANews.TV via email, a Filipina residing in Chile chided the embassy for “inconsistencies" in documenting the number of Filipinos in the Latin American nation. “Just how many of us Filipinos live here? 158? 89? Or 75? It is disappointing to think that our own Embassy in Santiago cannot keep track of our fellow Filipinos when we number less than 200 in this country," Ann Mendoza-Tengco stated. Tengco was referring to earlier confusion as to the number of Filipinos in the country, after the DFA clarified that there are 75 Filipinos there, and not 89 as it earlier reported. Data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), however, show there are 158 Filipinos in Chile as of December 2008. She also refuted the Embassy’s claim that there are no overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Chile, saying majority of the Filipinos there are OFWs working as domestic helpers. Data from the POEA show that as of December 2008, the count of land-based OFWs deployed in Chile was 36, and the figure has been continually increasing since 2004 from just two OFWs. “[T]here has been no posting about the earthquake or any advisories (including any contingency, evacuation and repatriation plans)… We are also certain that attempts to communicate with the Filipinos did not commence [until] March 1 – more than 48 hours after the quake," Tengco added. Malaya, however, said there appeared to be no need for evacuation nor repatriation as the Embassy has not received any request for such. He will nevertheless get in touch with the Embassy for updates, Malaya added.—JV, GMANews.TV