The Philippine government has formally requested Myanmar to permit a Philippine team to assist in the search for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who went missing following the devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake.
This appeal comes after the Philippine government decided to shift its focus to retrieval operations for Filipino victims of the quake.
According to Office of Civil Defense (OCD) spokesperson Atty. Chris Noel Bendijo, their office is still awaiting an official response from the Myanmar government regarding the request.
Bendijo expressed hope that Myanmar will grant permission for the Philippine team to join ongoing retrieval efforts.
The missing OFWs were reported to be residing in Mandalay, an area heavily impacted by the earthquake, and remain unaccounted for as of this writing.
Earlier, the Philippines had made a similar request to deploy a team to Mandalay to locate the missing nationals, but the Myanmar authorities denied entry at that time.
A total of 89 personnel from the Philippine contingent were dispatched to Myanmar on April 1 and 2 to participate in disaster response and relief operations for those affected by the quake.