Filipinos in Japan ‘not balikbayan boxes’

MANILA, Philippines—Saying Filipinos who want to leave Japan are “not balikbayan boxes,” militant groups Thursday assailed President Benigno Aquino III’s plan to use its one and only C-130 plane to fly them home.

Renato Reyes Jr., secretary general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said, “surely, the Aquino administration can do better.”

“It can get chartered flights from Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific to help Filipinos in Fukushima evacuate. Isn’t a C-130 a cargo plane? Are they planning to fly Filipinos out of Japan like balikbayan boxes?” Reyes told the Inquirer.

“The Palace statement that Filipinos who have no means can just ride the C-130 of the Air Force is definitely not enough.”

He said the government “should exert its best efforts and should have a concrete plan.”

“It should also allocate emergency funds for the repatriation of Filipinos from Japan. The funds should also include provisions for food and relief goods since they are also in short supply for Filipinos there,” he asserted.

Millions for DFA travel

John Leonard Monterona, regional coordinator of the Riyadh-based Migrante-Middle East, wondered if the government was bankrupt.

Migrante and its affiliate organizations worldwide have expressed outrage over the claim of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) that it has no funds for the repatriation of Filipinos fleeing Japan.

The DFA has apparently forgotten that Filipinos in Japan, who number 305,000, send over $880 million a year in remittances to the Philippines, Monterona said.

Embassy team blasted

A group of Filipinos students in Sendai, one of the areas hardest-hit by the March 11 quake and tsunami, expressed “deep rage and great disappointment” over the slow and inefficient team sent to the area by the Philippine Embassy in Tokyo.

“The first team from our embassy arrived here on the night of March 13, the time when other foreign nationals were starting to evacuate from Sendai,” the group said in an e-mail.

“The team came to Sendai without a concrete contingency plan.”

Clearly, members of the team were “not only unprepared, they also lacked the necessary skills” to handle an evacuation program, the students said.

“We demand a sense of urgency from our government. We demand that the government exhaust all means to surpass the incompetent actions of the Philippine contingent here in Japan. Act now!” they said.

Oust Lopez call

Nestor Puno, Migrante-Japan spokesperson, called for the immediate recall and replacement of Philippine Ambassador to Tokyo Manuel Lopez.

Lopez has angered Filipinos in Japan for proposing the evacuation of embassy personnel and their dependents, Puno said.

Lopez has denied he requested evacuation for his staff.