DFA: Returning Pinoys from Bahrain, Japan should pay own fares for now

Despite a growing potential dangers at this time, Filipinos in Japan and Bahrain who want to go home will have to pay their own fares home, at least for now. The same rule will apply to non-essential embassy personnel and dependents allowed to go home, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said. "We're at Crisis Level 2. If they want to come home they have to come home on their own. When the crisis is raised to Level 3, we will take care of them," Del Rosario said Thursday in an interview on dwIZ radio. Even those Filipinos who want to go home but do not have the money to pay their own fares may have to wait until the crisis level is upgraded, he added. However, Del Rosario reassured the public the government has enough funds for repatriation, once the need arises. "We want to take this opportunity to fully reassure our people who are overseas that the foreign policy of the Philippine government ... is to help our people abroad. We will do everything we can to make sure they are safe and we will be able to help them," he said. Crisis Level 2 At Crisis Level 2, the DFA encouraged 31,000 Filipinos in Bahrain to "restrict their movements to only those which are absolutely essential, and also to voluntarily depart the country." The DFA had issued a travel advisory to Bahrain, which is experiencing unrest and urged Filipinos to defer non-essential and non-urgent travel there. In Japan, the DFA allowed non-essential embassy personnel and dependents to go home after a magnitude-9.0 quake and a 10-meter-high tsunami devastated some parts the country. Japan also faces a threat of radiation after fires broke out at a quake-crippled nuclear power plant. He added that funding for repatriating Filipinos will be made available only when the crisis level is upgraded to "3," which calls for repatriation. "I think the repatriation now is not being called for," he said. Assessment team Meanwhile, Del Rosario said the Philippine government will send an assessment team to Bahrain to check the situation on the ground. He said the team was to leave Manila Thursday. "We would also like to ask them to help the embassy in revalidating our contingency measures there in case we need to go to Level 3," he said. He also reminded Filipinos there of the travel advisory the Philippines issued last February 21 that he said "advises against traveling to Bahrain unless it's essential." — LBG/RSJ, GMA News