AROUND 100 Filipinos from Mandalay City in Myanmar will be temporarily relocated this week to another city, Yangon, while another Filipino has asked to be repatriated to Manila.
The Department of Foreign Affairs announced this yesterday as search operations continue for four other Filipinos who have been missing since a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck the country on March 28.
Yangon, where most of the Filipinos in Myanmar are located, was not totally affected by the earthquake, said Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo Jose de Vega.
The death toll from the quake has risen to 2,886, Myanmar state television MRTV said on Telegram yesterday, with 4,639 people injured and 373 missing.
De Vega said 97 Filipinos in Mandalay, which is near the quake’s epicenter, have asked for assistance to be relocated to Yangon as structures in Mandalay remained unsafe after the quake jolted the country and neighboring Thailand.
“The Philippine Embassy in Myanmar is now coordinating buses for those who will be transferred or relocated to Yangon,” he said.
Latest data provided by the DFA showed there are 764 Filipinos in Yangon, 171 in Mandalay, and 25 in the capital city of Naypyitaw.
DFA Assistant Secretary and spokesperson Teresita Daza earlier said a Filipino has “requested for repatriation” to the country.
She said 17 Filipinos from the Mandalay International Academy have also requested to be relocated to Yangon.
The Philippine Embassy in Myanmar, in an advisory late Tuesday, said none of the rescued persons or recovered cadavers has been identified as among the four missing Filipinos presumed in the rubble of a residential building that collapsed in Mandalay.
“The composite team of the Philippine Embassy in Yangon, Myanmar had met with the officials handling the search and rescue on site as well as officials of the Mandalay General Hospital to confirm identities of rescued or recovered foreigners from the Sky Villa building rubble,” the embassy said in a statement late Tuesday night.
“At this time, no positive identification has been made for any rescued persons or recovered cadavers in connection with the four Filipinos who are presumed in the rubble,” it added.
It said that the team has also met with 11 Filipinos who survived the collapse of the Sky Villa building.
“The Embassy remains in close coordination with relevant authorities and is exerting all efforts to ascertain the status of our nationals. Search and retrieval operations are still ongoing,” it said.
OVERSEAS VOTING
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said the mode for overseas voting in Myanmar and in neighboring Thailand which was rattled by the quake will remain the same.
There are 370 overseas voters in Myanmar and 8,203 in Thailand.
Comelec Chairman George Garcia said voters in Myanmar will still cast their votes through the postal voting method. He said infrastructures there remain capable of hosting the postal voting.
As for Thailand, Garcia said the Filipino voters there will still use the online voting and counting system (OVCS) or the internet voting mode.
He said this is why they are encouraging voters in Thailand to start enrolling for the OVCS.
“Even if you are a registered overseas voter, you cannot vote if you are not enrolled,” he said.
AID
United Nations officials who surveyed earthquake damage in Myanmar have urged the global community to ramp up aid before the looming monsoon season worsens already catastrophic conditions.
Drinking water, hygiene, food, shelter and medicine are the most critical needs following extensive damage to buildings, roads and bridges, said Marcoluigi Corsi, acting humanitarian and resident coordinator following a two-day visit.
A civil war in Myanmar had displaced more than 3 million people long before the quake struck. UN Special Envoy for Myanmar Julie Bishop urged all sides to immediately cease fire, permit humanitarian access and ensure aid workers are safe.
Aid groups in Myanmar warned that the window to find survivors was closing fast.
The quake, which struck at lunchtime on Friday, was the strongest to hit the Southeast Asian country in more than a century. It toppled ancient pagodas and modern buildings alike and inflicted significant damage on Myanmar’s second city Mandalay and Naypyitaw, the capital the previous junta purpose-built to be an impregnable fortress.
UN agencies said hospitals were overwhelmed and rescue efforts hindered by infrastructure damage and the civil war. Rebels have accused the military of conducting airstrikes even after the quake and on Tuesday a major rebel alliance declared a unilateral ceasefire to help relief efforts. – With Gerard Naval and Reuters
