PHL Embassy fetches 11 more Pinoys on 4th mission to Fukushima

A fourth consular mission sent by the Philippine Embassy in Tokyo to Fukushima prefecture, where a 30-km danger zone was imposed around an overheating nuclear plant damaged by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, on Saturday came back to the capital city with only 11 Filipinos. The 11 Filipinos, including their children, all came from Koriyama City in central Fukushima, according to GMA News reporter Chino Gaston on “24 Oras Weekend" reporting straight from Japan. The names of the relocated Filipinos were not immediately available. A total of 28 from Iwaki, a city in southeastern Fukushima, also requested to be relocated to Tokyo, according to the report, but not one came to the Iwaki City hall, the designated pick-up point in the area. It is unclear why the 28 failed to show, the report stated. In a release, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) earlier said the consular mission, already the fourth sent by the Philippine government, left Saturday afternoon for Fukushima, to fetch some 60 Filipinos at two pick-up points – the Koriyama City Hall and the Iwaki City Hall. The mission, headed by Third Secretary and Vice Consul Christian de Jesus, is expected to reach Tokyo also on Saturday at 11 p.m. The Filipinos will then be brought to Wesley Center at Minami Aoyama, an evacuation center in Tokyo. Another consular mission will also be sent to Sendai City on Sunday to deliver relief goods to the Filipino community there, and to fetch Filipinos who would want to be relocated to Tokyo. To date, the Embassy said its consular missions have relocated a total of 101 Filipinos, 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 fourth consular mission came after authorities in Japan raised the nuclear alert level to 5 from 4, and have begun considering other options such as burying the plant, after efforts at dousing it with water from helicopters failed to address the problem. (See: Palace: PHL safe despite Level-5 nuclear threat in Japan)—Jerrie M. Abella/JV, GMA News