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PHL to send consular team to Japan’s devastated northeast


(Update 12:33 p.m.) The Philippines will send a consular team to disaster-stricken Japan no later than Tuesday to find out if there were Filipino casualties from Friday’s 8.9 magnitude temblor that struck the Land of the Rising Sun followed by a tsunami with 33-foot waves. Philippine Ambassador to Japan Manuel Lopez on Sunday said the team from the embassy’s consular section to be on the site in Japan northeast. “Sa Lunes o Martes magpapadala kami ng team sa consular services to contact authorities doon sa lugar na ‘yan in northeast Japan para alamin kung may casualties tayo (Monday or Tuesday we will send a team from the consular services to contact authorities in that place in northeast Japan to inquire if we have casualties)," Lopez said in an interview on GMA News Online affiliate radio dzBB. “Mataas daw ang number of reported dead and missing. Gusto namin i-verify kung may kasamang kababayan natin doon (They say the number of those reported dead and missing was high. We want to verify if included are our countrymen there), he added. Filipinos in Tokyo, Osaka and Western Japan are safe, according to the ambassador, saying the concern is focused on some 4,500 Filipinos in the northeast. Lopez, however, said the team may take some time to reach the northeast because of the damage to infrastructure. “Magpapadala kami ng team doon as soon as the highways open. Ang ibang daanan sarado pa dahil bumukas ang lupa. Pati tren walang serbisyo (We are sending a team there as soon as the highways open. Other roads are still closed, because the earth has cracked open. Even the train is not in service)," he said. As of Sunday morning, no Filipino has been reported as among those killed or injured, according to the embassy in Tokyo’s Roppongi Minato-ku district. Citing Japanese media reports, Lopez said the casualty count in Japan has topped 1,000. “So far lahat na mga Pilipino ay okay pa (So far all the Filipinos are still okay," he said. As this developed, members of the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) have volunteered their services for the victims in the wake of Friday’s earthquake and tsunami that also damaged nuclear power plants in Japan. PMA spokesperson Mike Aragon said the association is already coordinating with the Health Department and with their Japanese counterpart on how to send an “elite volunteers group" to the disaster-stricken area. The association of medical doctors is “organizing an elite volunteers group made up of surgeons, anesthesiologists, and emergency medicine and infectious disease specialists," Aragon said in an interview on radio dzRH. The preparation is ahead of a possible United Nations call for international aid for Japan, he said. Aragon said the association is trying to work out a partnership with the Health Department that will lead to a joint Philippine contingent. The PMA is also coordinating with the Japan Medical Association to see how arrangements will unfold in terms of emergency medical services, he added. “At present, the priority there is search-and-rescue operations. After that comes relief. After relief comes rehabilitation," he explained. — JE/VS, GMA News
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