No Pinoys injured in Mexico quake – DFA
No Filipino was reported injured or killed in the magnitude 8 earthquake that hit Mexico yesterday, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said.
“All 600 Filipinos in Mexico are safe,” Cayetano told reporters.
Philippine embassy officials in Mexico said only a few Filipinos live in the southern part of Mexico, where the epicenter of the quake was recorded. The largest concentrations are in the urban centers of Mexico City, Guadalajara and along the northern border with the US, Vice Consul Mikhal de Dios told GMA News Online.
The quake struck off the coast of Chiapas at 12:49 p.m. (Manila time). It was the strongest to have hit the country since 1985, killing at least five people.
An advisory of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) on a possible “destructive tsunami that can strike coastlines in areas facing the Pacific Ocean” following the tremor was lifted hours later.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center forecast tsunami waves less than 0.3 meters for the Philippines.
Although the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) alerted all coastal communities in 22 provinces fronting the Pacific Ocean, there is no need for residents to evacuate, said its spokesperson Mina Marasigan.
They are advised though to closely monitor advisories from competent disaster authorities, she added.
The alert included those of the Batanes Island Group, Cagayan, Ilocos Norte, Isabela, Quezon, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Albay, Catanduanes and Sorsogon in Luzon; and for those in Eastern Samar, Northern Samar, Leyte, Southern Leyte, Surigao del Norte and Sur, Davao Oriental, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur and Davao Occidental in the Visayas and Mindanao.
As of late yesterday afternoon, the NDRRMC alert was lifted after all available data showed the Mexico quake posed no destructive tsunami threat to the Philippines.
Marasigan said that monitored sea-level gauges in Mexico have only recorded tsunami waves with maximum heights of 1.01 meters.