Japan: PH rescue team must be self-sufficient

MANILA, Philippines—The Japanese Embassy is awaiting word from Tokyo on the Philippine offer to send a rescue team to disaster-stricken Japan, but the ambassador stressed that the mission should be self-sufficient, President Benigno Aquino III said Thursday.

Mr. Aquino went to Japanese Ambassador Makoto Katsura’s residence Thursday to sign a book of condolences and reiterated the country’s offer of assistance to Japan in the aftermath of what has been called the Great Sendai Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011.

He said Katsura told him that he was still waiting for word from his home office on “modalities” of the Philippine offer made last week.

“[Until] he gets word from the home office, he can’t advise us … There are certain specifications that their home office would be issuing so that the people would become a help and not more of a burden,” Mr. Aquino told reporters.

“They did mention that that part of Japan would have very few English speakers. [If] we’d send that team over there, they’d have to be self-sufficient to include items like fuel, food and shelter.”

Winter chill

The President said the Japanese ambassador also said it was very cold at this time in that part of Japan.

“So if in case we should prepare, these are the conditions that will face rescuers if we do send the rescuers there. I think that is what is meant by modalities,” Mr. Aquino said.

The C-130 airplane that is to ferry rescue workers and relief goods to Japan will provide a free ride home for Filipinos who want to leave Japan but don’t have the means to do so, Mr. Aquino said.

But the President said that his government was not repatriating Filipinos from Japan.

“The repatriation and the evacuation will rest on the assessment of our ambassador in Japan, who has been sending teams to assess the conditions of our countrymen all over Japan,” Mr. Aquino said.

“There is a fund that we can draw from (the Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration) but that is not an inexhaustible fund,” he said, pointing out that Filipinos in such countries as the Middle East also were facing difficulties.

“We have to prioritize who gets the most assistance,” he added.

Not a rebuff

Presidential spokesperson Ricky Carandang said Filipinos should not take it as a rebuff if the Japanese authorities are taking a while to respond to the Philippine offer.

“They’re dealing with a disaster from the earthquake, they’re dealing with tsunami, they’re dealing with the nuclear explosion in Fukushima,” Carandang told a news briefing.

“There are 91 countries at last count who have offered assistance to Japan. I think we should give them time to decide which one they will accept, which one they will not, what kind of help they would accept… We’re ready to offer assistance within our means. It should not be taken as a rebuff if they have not accepted our offer yet,” he said.