MECO denies making plans to evacuate Filipinos from Taiwan
馬尼拉經濟文化辦事處否認計劃撤離從台灣撤離菲律賓人
| Bello denies holding meeting with Filipino communities to plan evacuation from Taiwan
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Philippine representative to Taiwan on Monday (Aug. 8) denied that his office has discussed evacuation plans with any Filipino community in Taiwan amid ongoing Chinese military exercises around Taiwan. From Aug. 4-7, China held military exercises and live-fire drills on an unprecedented scale and scope in six zones around Taiwan in retaliation for U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. Some of the over 100,000 Filipino migrant workers in Taiwan have begun to express concerns about the need to evacuate in the event China further ramps up its military aggression against Taiwan. In the midst of the live-fire drills on Saturday (Aug. 6), Mercedita Kuan, secretary-general of Filcom Taiwan Northern, told ABS-CBN's TeleRadyo that “We have fears, that is why we will hold a Zoom meeting with MECO…We need to know the evacuation plan in case the threat escalates." The Manila Standard on Sunday (Aug. 7) reported that a coalition of Filipino communities in Taiwan held a virtual meeting that day with the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) to "discuss evacuation plans in case the conflict escalates." Kuan stated that Taipei residents have been encouraged to download a government app that lists 5,771 air raid shelters in the city. Silvestre Bello III, the MECO chairman and representative to Taiwan, was cited by the Manila Standard as saying “Places of work and factories (have been) required ever since to have shelter and food provision for at least two weeks.” However, on Monday, Bello told CNA that the situation in Taiwan is normal at the present and claimed he had not discussed evacuation plans with any Filipino community in Taiwan. He said that he did not think it was necessary to evacuate people and that the claim that they were going to evacuate people was unfounded and not true. In addition, Kuan told the news agency that her statement had been misinterpreted and declined to make further comments on the matter. Bello further emphasized, that he would like to clarify that MECO has no plans to evacuate its citizens. Bello said he plans to travel to Taiwan next Tuesday (Aug. 16) to meet with MECO staff and get a first-hand assessment of the situation. He reiterated he had only received reports on the situation in Taiwan, had not held meetings with Filipino communities in Taiwan, and was surprised by claims that he had met with Filipino groups to discuss evacuation plans. |
|
| Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer | |
| 2022-08-09 |
