PHL consular team on mercy mission to Iwate, Japan

A Philippine Embassy team headed to another quake- and tsunami-hit area in Japan Wednesday to bring relief goods to Filipinos there. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said the consular mission headed for Iwate, 600 km away from Tokyo, at noon and was to reach the area late evening. Heading the mission was Consul General Sulpicio Confiado, Third Secretary and Vice Consul Ryan Pondoc, and DFA-Office of the Secretary Principal Assistant Andre Peter Estanislao, the DFA said in a news release on its website Wednesday night.

Relief items brought by the team included food packs, blankets, and futons or thin mattresses. The team will meet with Masahiro Murayama, Philippine Honorary Consul in Morioka, to discuss the condition of the Filipinos in Iwate, one of the hardest hit prefectures. From Morioka City, the Embassy team will proceed to Rikuzentakada and Ofunato cities Thursday to distribute relief goods to Filipino nationals there. On the way to Tokyo, the Embassy team will drop by Fukushima city to fetch Filipinos who have expressed their desire to be relocated to Tokyo. Earlier, Philippine Ambassador to Japan Manuel Lopez said the Embassy will send more buses to the area if necessary. The Embassy's first four consular missions have so far relocated 143 Filipinos. (See: 27 more Pinoys fetched from quake-hit areas in Japan) "These Filipinos are now temporarily housed at a Catholic Church in Kichijogi, at the Lighthouse Ministry in Yokohama City and at the Franciscan Church in Roppongi in Tokyo," the DFA said.—JV, GMA News