[PHOTO COURTESY OF ALLVOICES.COM: ARRIVALS IN THE PHILIPPINES]
MANILA, MARCH 21, 2011 (STAR) BY Rudy Santos - Over a thousand Japanese nationals have been coming to the country every day through the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) terminals in various flights from Japan.
The increase in arrivals came after the powerful earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan last March 11 and after it raised its radioactivity alert to level 5 at its nuclear plant in Fukushima which has been badly damaged due to the disaster.
Immigration Airport Operations Division (AOD) chief Ynn Pelia said they have noticed that the arrivals of Japanese increased after the incident, as compared to the number of arrivals in previous months.
Medical doctors at the NAIA said they don't have the necessary instrument or machine that can detect at the point of entry incoming passengers affected by nuclear radiation.
Human quarantine doctor Vicenta Vasquez said, "The only thing we can do at the moment is to refer them to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) or the Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (PNRI) which have the facility."
Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) assistant general manager Antonio Bautista, meantime, said the DOST has its own monitoring system and as far as their observation is concerned, there is no risk of the Philippines being affected by the radioactive plume.
FROM PNA
Arriving Filipinos from Japan not required to undergo quarantine procedure March 17, 2011, 4:56am
MANILA, Philippines (PNA) -- Arriving Filipinos at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport [NAIA] from Japan are not required to undergo quarantine procedure to detect if they are affected by radiation.
According to Dr. Alexander Oba, chief of the Human Quarantine at the premier airport, there is no need to place incoming passengers from earthquake/tsunami-torn Japan to quarantine to contain the entry of radiation in the country.
"Hindi naman nakakahawa ang radiation mula sa individual na na-expose dito Japan. The only passengers who will undergo the process, are those that have the symptoms of infectious diseases," Oba said.
Oba admitted that radiation on exposed passengers cannot be detected in their thermal screening machine.
Meanwhile, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration [OWWA] said that the 20 Filipino seamen rescued after the tsunami in Japan immobilized and pushed their ship, MV Coral Ring, to berth is set to arrive at 6:50 p.m. Wednesday on board Cathay Pacific Airlines flight CX-919 from Hongkong.
OWWA Administrator Carmelita Dimzon said the sailors will reunite with their families at the NAIA.
Dimzon, together with the manning agency, Mercury Shipping Corp., headed by its president Ericson Marquez and their families, will meet the arriving Filipino seafarer tsunami survivors.
It was learned from OWWA that the government has already dispatched the other day its first team to Japan's Tohoku region to check the situation of Filipino nationals in earthquake-affected areas.
"We are now coordinating with the Philippine Ambassador to Japan Manuel M. Lopez and any moment from now they will send us message if there are arriving Filipinos from Japan that will be repatriated," Dimzon said.
Woman, grandson found at quake-wrecked home By AP (The Philippine Star) Updated March 21, 2011 12:00 AM Comments (1) View comments
[PHOTO - TSUNAMI SWIPING HOUSES AWAY]
TOKYO – An 80-year-old woman and her teenage grandson were rescued yesterday in northeastern Japan when the youth was able to pull himself out of their flattened two-story house nine days after the devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Jin Abe, 16, was seen calling out for help from the roof of the collapsed home in the hard-hit city of Ishinomaki, according to the Miyagi Prefectural Police.
Like other homes in northeastern Japan, they had lost electricity and telephone service in the March 11 earthquake.
He led them inside to his 80-year-old grandmother, Sumi Abe. Both were conscious but weak, and had survived on the food they had in their refrigerator, said Shizuo Kawamura of the Ishinomaki police department.
The woman could not get out of the house because she has trouble walking, and the teenager, who was suffering from a low body temperature, had been unable until Sunday to pull himself from the wreckage, Kawamura told The Associated Press by telephone.
They were found by local police who realized they couldn't get the woman out of the collapsed house and had to call other rescuers, he said.
[PHOTO - CYCLING THORUGH THE RUINS]
National broadcaster NHK showed video of the stunned but coherent woman being placed on a stretcher. She was able to give her name and
told rescuers she had been in the house since it collapsed in the quake.
When asked if she was hurt, she said no.
The police said they were trying to learn if there had been other relatives living in the house and their whereabouts.
NHK showed them being taken by helicopter to a hospital.
Kawamura said that while the rescue was a reason for joy, the police had "too many other victims to find to take the time to celebrate."
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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