By Gloria Jane Baylon
To facilitate their early departure from quake-hit Haiti, Filipinos desiring repatriation to the Philippines but whose passports have gone missing or have expired will be issued special travel documents by the Philippine Task Force to Haiti, led by Ambassador to Cuba Macarthur Corsino.
This was announced on Wednesday by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), as it noted that a third confirmed Filipino fatality, identified as army Sergeant Eustacio Bermudez, has been finally dug out of the rubble of his workplace.
This leaves only one Filipino peacekeeper, Sergeant Janice Arocena, still underneath the rubble of the headquarters of the United Nations Mission to Haiti (MINUSTAH). Two female workers of the Caribbean Supermarket are still missing, and hopes ebbed that they are still alive underneath the supermarket's rubble.
Corsino met with the leaders of the Filipino community, led by Francisco Bagadiong and Godofredo Edquiban Jr., to plan out measures of reaching out to possible other Filipinos needing assistance in other part of Haiti.
Already, a total of 193 Filipinos have been accounted for by the task force, many of them expressing a desire to be repatriated.
With Haiti practically leveled to the ground and amenities and food sorely lacking due to the magnitude-7 earthquake last week, most Filipinos there have lost their residences, friends and colleagues, workplaces and their jobs, even their fighting spirit.
Should repatriation proceed, the Filipinos will go on land from Port-au-Prince to Haiti’s neighbor to the east, Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, and then board a plane to Manila, according to DFA. (PNA)
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