By JUN MEDINA
After being stranded more than a week, 32 Filipino evacuees from quake-devastated Haiti departed Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic early morning Wednesday on a flight to Los Angeles, California to catch an evening flight to Manila.
Philippine Ambassador to Cuba MacArthur Corsino, who has jurisdiction over Haiti, said the 32 is the fifth and last batch of Filipinos who were repatriated from Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital city that was flattened by the Jan. 12 Intensity 7 earthquake.
“After early morning departure from Santiago airport, Dominican Republic, I am now in transit stop in the U.S. on the way to Manila as escort of the last and biggest batch of repatriates consisting of 32 persons,” Corsino said in an email from the Los Angeles International Airport.
The fourth batch of Filipino workers who survived the earthquake arrived early morning of Thursday in Manila.
The eight survivors landed at 7 a.m. at Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Terminal 2, onboard Philippine Airlines Flight 103 from Los Angeles.
They were Joel Bacurin, Rizza Bagadiong, Dominador Bagadiong Jr., Jeffrey Estabillo, Magielyn Trinidad, Celerino Trinidad, Myla Trinidad and Odelon Trinidad.
They were to take a Philippine Airlines flight from L.A. to Manila, after a stopover in Guam, a U.S. territory in the Pacific with a large ethnic Filipino population.
Corsino said a total of 63 overseas Filipino workers and family members would have been repatriated when the final batch arrives in Manila via Guam.
Most of the returning Filipinos intend to stay in the Philippines for good, while an undetermined number still hope to return when the situation improves in Haiti, which has so far lost more than 200,000 people from the worst earthquake to hit the impoverished Caribbean nation.
Corsino reiterated his thanks to the Filipino community in the Dominican Republic for extending their help for their stranded compatriots who include more than 20 minors, four of them babies.
He also commended the team of officers from the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of Labor and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration for personally assisting the evacuees and for actually accompanying them in their long journey home.
It was a tiring trip for the Filipino evacuees who travelled by bus from Port-au-Prince to the Dominican Republic’s capital city where most of them had to wait for days to get U.S. transit visas for connecting flights via Miami in Florida and Los Angeles.
In Port-au-Prince, members of the small but closely-knit Filipino community welcomed the news that the last group of their colleagues who opted to leave the quake-ravaged country, would soon be reunited with their families.
Those who decided to stick it out in Haiti said they have been assured by Corsino and other officials that the Philippine government would regularly monitor their needs and assist in their repatriation should it become necessary.
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