THE Overseas Workers and Welfare Administration (OWWA) is prepared to facilitate the repatriation of Filipinos should the conflict between North Korea and South Korea escalate.
OWWA -Central Visayas Regional Director Wilfreda Misterio said that they are ready since this is not the first time that a war happened between countries where there are overseas Filipino workers.
OWWA has already prepared itself for the evacuation, repatriation and alert level the moment war breaks out in the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea has warned last Wednesday that its military has been given the go signal to launch nuclear attack on the US. North Korea considers the military exercises between the US and North Korea acts of provocation to the long-standing ceasefire in the Korean Peninsula.
Meanwhile, United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) candidate for Senator and Cagayan Rep. Jack Enrile called on the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to prepare for a rescue plan for Filipinos in the event that North Korea makes good its threat to attack South Korea in an increasingly volatile situation in the Korean Peninsula.
While the North Korean threat has been dismissed by the international community, South Korea has also said that it will respond appropriately to any provocation by its hostile neighbor.
“While we join the rest of the international community in hoping that the increasing tension in the Korean Peninsula will not escalate into a full blown war, we are also concerned with the situation of 40,000 Filipinos who are currently working and living in South Korea,” he said in a statement.