MANILA, Philippines— (UPDATE) The first two Filipino fatalities in the magnitude-7 earthquake that rocked Haiti last week was confirmed by the Department of Foreign Affairs Tuesday after the remains of Jerome Yap, a United Nations staffer, and Pearlie Panangui, a UN peace worker, were found.
Yap, who was from Pampanga, served as executive assistant to Luis Carlos Da Costa, the deputy special representative of the UN Secretary General who was also killed in the collapsed building of the headquarters of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah).
The body of Navy Petty Officer 3 Panangui was recovered by rescue operators early Tuesday morning from the rubble of the UN headquarters in the 2nd floor of Christopher Hotel in Haiti, said AFP spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Romeo Brawner Jr.
Still missing are Air Force Sergeant Janice Arocena and Army Sergeant Eustacio Bermudes Jr., Brawner said.
The DFA expressed “regrets to inform the public that the Philippines lost one of its own in last week’s earthquake that struck Haiti with the recovery of the remains of Mr. Jerome Yap at 5:15 a.m. (Haiti time).”
Yap’s remains were recovered several hours after the bodies of the special representative of the UN Secretary General, Hedi Annabi, and several others were pulled out of the ruins, the DFA said, quoting the report from the Philippine Mission to the United Nations in New York.
The Philippine Mission has already informed Yap’s family in New York and Pampanga after learning about the recovery of remains by Lieutenant Colonel Lope Dagoy, Commander of the 10th Philippine Peacekeeping Contingent.
Arrangements are being made for the repatriation of the remains of Yap and Panangui to the Philippines.
Of the estimated 700 Filipinos in Haiti, including the 172 Filipino UN peacekeepers, 165 are confirmed alive and safe.
Earlier, two Filipinas, Grace Fabian and Aurora Aguinaldo, were saved from the rubble of the Caribbean Supermarket. Both are safe and well. A Filipino peacekeeper, Army Corporal David Catacutan, was also rescued from the Montana Hotel on Thursday.
Another Filipina, Geraldine Calican, is still trapped under the Caribbean Supermarket, the DFA said.
Last week, the UN and its partners launched an appeal for nearly $600 million to help the victims of the earthquake, which has left basic services on the brink of collapse in Port-au-Prince.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo approved the release of $50,000 as Philippines' contribution to the flash appeal for funds intended to assist an estimated 3 million affected people over a period of six months. Half of the funds will be earmarked for emergency food aid, with the rest targeted at health, water, sanitation, nutrition, early recovery, emergency education, and other key needs.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also called for an additional 3,500 UN troops and police officers to be deployed to Haiti, already the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation before the disaster, to ensure that aid would the victims of the disaster as quickly as possible.
Ban visited Port-au-Prince on Sunday and asked the Security Council for an extra 1,500 police officers and 2,000 troops to reinforce the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, known as Minustah, which has 9,000 uniformed personnel already on the ground.
“The heartbreaking scenes... witnessed yesterday compel us to act swiftly and generously,” Ban told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York.
“The Haitian people need to see that today is better than yesterday. They need to believe that the future will be better than the past,” he added.
Minustah and others taking part in the operation have agreed on a clear division of responsibilities regarding the provision of security and humanitarian support, he said.
Source:globalnation.inquirer.net/
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