DFA: 100 Filipinos in Haiti accounted for, safe

At least 100 Filipinos in Haiti’s Delmas district have been accounted for and were safe, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Sunday. The DFA quoted Lt. Col. Lope Dagoy, 10th Philippine Contingent commander, as saying that an initial census of Filipinos in the Delmas district had been conducted to determine their locations and conditions. Delmas is a district in the Ouest Department of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital, where a sizeable number of Filipinos reside. The list was drawn from three areas — Delmas 31, Delmas 41 and Delmas 56. “Some 100 Filipinos were identified, accounted for, and found to be in safe physical condition. These include two religious nuns with the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister of Haiti," the department said in a statement posted on its Website. Of the recorded 462 Filipinos in Haiti, 290 are civilians and 172 are peacekeepers. There are some Filipino priests and nuns as well. Filipinos who work in the Caribbean country occupy middle- to upper-level management positions and are employed in the garment, telecommunication and power generation sectors. At least 50,000 have been feared dead in the Haiti quake after most concrete buildings in the capital collapsed. The DFA said efforts were still underway for the rescue of Filipinas Grace Fabian and Geraldine Lalican, who remained trapped under the ruins of the Carribean Supermarket area in Port-au-Prince. Fabian was earlier reported to have been rescued, but Dagoy belied the reports. Earlier on Sunday, Armed Forces information office chief Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr. said three Filipinos from the United Nations Peacekeeping Force and another Filipino UN worker were still trapped beneath the rubble of Christopher Hotel, also in Port-au-Prince. The missing Filipinos were earlier identified as UN civilian staff member Jerome Yap and peacekeepers Petty Officer 3 Pearly Panangui, Sergeant Janice Arocena and Sergeant Eustacio Bermudez. “Right now, massive retrieval and rescue operations are ongoing. The three peacekeepers and one UN worker, as well as two Filipinas who worked at the Caribbean Supermarket have not been rescued," Brawner told dzBB radio in Filipino. — Sophia Regina Dedace/NPA, GMANews.TV The DFA said the following Filipinos in the Delmas district were safe. The list was drawn from three areas — Delmas 31, Delmas 41 and Delmas 56.