Plans in place to protect Pinoys in South Korea – Palace

The government is not inclined to issue a travel advisory over tension in the Korean peninsula but Philippine Embassy officials in South Korea are keeping a close eye on the situation there, a Palace spokesperson said.
 
Usec. Abigail Valte, deputy presidential spokesperson, said in a press briefing on Saturday that the Department of Foreign Affairs is "closely monitoring these developments even as we continue to call for restraint on both sides."
 
North Korea has put its front-line troops in a "quasi-state of war" over loudspeakers in the South that broadcast anti-Pyongyang propaganda and has demanded that South Korea stop the broadcasts.
 
Seoul says it will continue the broadcasts unless the North accepts responsibility for landmine explosions this month in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that wounded two South Korean soldiers. Pyongyang denies it planted the mines.
 
Both sides fired artillery at each other on Thursday.
 
Valte said that the Philippine Embassy in South Korea already has protocols in place in case Filipinos need to be evacuated.
 
"We had plans in place. I think this was sometime back in 2011 pa, early on in President [Benigno] Aquino’s term, when there was also a similar exchange of fires between the two. And na-activate naman po natin agad iyong ating evacuation protocols for our OFWs," she said, adding the plans have been refined since then.
 
"So, it is just a matter of activating the protocol," she said.
 
Valte said that there is good coordination between the embassy and the Filipino community in South Korea.
 
"So our first advice to them would be to follow the information that is disseminated to you by the embassy and to strictly adhere to these reminders because these reminders are also for our safety," she also said.
 
She also said that the government does not see a need to issue a travel advisory for South Korea.
 
"We feel that it would be enough really to continue to issue the statements via media and, of course, our networks among and between the OFW groups in South Korea have already been alerted," she said.
 
The Philippinas, in a statement on Friday, urged "restraint on both sides and...the immediate de-escalation of tensions in order to maintain regional peace and stability.” — JDS, GMA News

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Russia captures town after 2 years of Ukrainian resistance --- Reuters

Russian forces now control 98.5% of Luhansk, 60% of Donetsk MOSCOW: Russian troops on Wednesday took charge of the eastern Ukrainian town of Vuhledar, a bastion that had resisted intense attacks since Russia launched its full-scale assault in 2022. The advance of Moscow's forces, which control just under a fifth of Ukraine, has underlined Russia's vast superiority in men and materiel as Ukraine pleads for more weapons from the Western allies that have been supporting it. Ukraine's eastern military command said it had ordered a pullback from the hilltop coal mining town to avoid encirclement by Russian troops and "preserve personnel and military equipment". The Russian defense ministry did not mention Vuhledar in its daily battlefield report. Russian Telegram channels, however, published video of troops waving the Russian tricolor flag over shattered buildings. The town, which had a population of over 14,000 before the war, has been devastated, with Soviet-era
Read more

Vietnam condemns China's 'brutal behavior' in fisher attack ---- Agence France-Presse

HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnam's foreign ministry condemned on Wednesday China's "brutal behavior" during a violent attack on Vietnamese fishers in the disputed South China Sea. The 10 fishermen were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars' worth of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands -- an archipelago in the resource-rich waterway claimed by China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei. Vietnam "resolutely protests the brutal behavior of Chinese law enforcement forces against Vietnamese fishermen and fishing vessels operating in the Hoang Sa archipelago of Vietnam", foreign ministry spokesperson Vietnam Pham Thu Hang said in a statement, using the Vietnamese term for the Paracel Islands. "The above actions of Chinese law enforcement forces seriously violated Vietnam's sovereignty" over the archipelago, the statement said. Four of the Vietnamese crew were taken to hospital on Monday
Read more

UP Diliman Professors Share Scientists’ Procurement Struggles at Senate Hearing

By Harvey Sapigao Senate hearing of the revised procurement law (Photo credit: Senate of the Philippines) College of Science (CS) Dean Giovanni Tapang held up a little white device as he finished his presentation. “This is a ₱150,000 component,” he described. “Isa lang gumagawa nito sa buong mundo, pero ang hirap pilitin sila na magregister sa PhilGEPS,” he continued, referring to the requirement that foreign companies must first register to the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS) before they can sell products to local scientists. Marine Science Institute (MSI) Deputy Director Dr. Irene Rodriguez explained that the small device is a resin that filters metals in water. “May budget tayo,” she said, “pero ang problema ko ay ‘yung resin na ito.” This and other bottlenecks brought about by the procurement law, or the Government Procurement Reform Act (RA 9184), slow down research and development in the country. UPD leaders were invited to the Senate he
Read more