Despite limitations in communication, the Palace continues to coordinate with the Japanese authorities in locating over 4300 Filipinos based in the quake-affected districts of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima.
The government is monitoring the progress of the rescue efforts through its crisis team in Sendai City.
"We don’t have any verified reports at this point of any Filipino casualties. Communications have been very difficult; there’s no electricity so the Internet is sporadic... the telephones have been off and on," said Presidential Communications and Development Strategic Planning Office Secretary Ricky A. Carandang in an ambush interview yesterday.
Nevertheless, Mr. Carandang reiterated the good news of 20 to 30 stranded seamen that were discovered via social media, rescued and brought out of Fukushima.
"They should be home before the end of the week," he assured.
Presidential spokesperson Abigail D. Valte has said in an earlier briefing that the government’s primary focus at the moment is providing assistance in terms of "search, rescue and eventual retrieval."
Ms. Valte admitted that not all the Filipinos have been accounted for, which makes rescue operations more imperative.
"There are civilian volunteers going already... Red Cross has already sent a contingent, the Philippine Medical Association... they’ve also sent civilian volunteers," she said.
Meanwhile, a number of Filipinos in Sendai are safe, a consular team sent there by the Philippine embassy in Tokyo reported.
In a report to the DFA yesterday, the team, which arrived in the devastated city late Sunday, said 10 students of Tohoku University are safe, while Filipinos have been found in two evacuation centers.
Earlier, the team said 30 seafarers brought to Fukushima by their employer after the quake are now bound for Narita airport.
Earlier reports said the group was billeted in a hotel without food, heating, electricity or water.
Sendai was the city nearest to the epicenter of the 8.9-magnitude undersea earthquake on Friday and thus bore the brunt of the quake and succeeding tsunami.
Manuel M. Lopez, Philippine ambassador to Japan, also reported that Filipinos in Hokkaido, the biggest northern island of Japan, are safe.
Filipinos living in the southern part of Japan are also safe, he added.
"Filipinos in Tokyo, Osaka and western Japan are deemed relatively safe. In fact some of them have pooled their efforts and resources in helping those who were adversely affected by the quake," Mr. Lopez said.
The DFA said over 4,300 Filipinos live in the hard-hit districts of Iwate (909), Fukushima (2,366) and Miyagi (1,039).
Meanwhile, Vice-President Jejomar C. Binay yesterday announced in a statement a six-month moratorium on housing loan amortization payments as well as on short-term loan payments and membership contributions for Pag-IBIG Fund members affected by last week’s earthquake.
Mr. Binay, also chairman of the board of trustees of Home Mutual Development Fund (Pag-IBIG Fund), has also instructed the agency to look into calamity loans, with each member allowed to borrow up to 80% of total savings with the fund. -- Johanna Paola D. Poblete and Nathaniel R. Melican
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