Gov’t readies contingency plan for Filipinos in Guam

Malacañang on Thursday said the government was ready to help Filipinos in Guam should North Korea make good its threat to launch missiles toward the US territory.

Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Philippine embassies and consulates had contingency plans in case of emergencies. These are regularly updated to enable them to respond to developments, he said.

“It’s pretty automatic that if there are any threats, especially for those who are in affected areas, they have contingency plans for those things,” Abella said in a press briefing.

But he said he had received no word yet if President Duterte would convene the National Security Council to tackle the growing threat posed by North  Korea.

Guam, a Pacific island with a population of a little more than  162,000, is roughly 2,500 kilometers from Manila.

More than 42,000 Filipinos live in Guam and according to Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Robespierre Bolivar, the Philippine consulate in the territory is updating its contingency plan following the North Korean threat.

“According to our consulate in Agana, they are updating their plans and they have started to coordinate with the local government,” Bolivar said on Thursday.

“But the daily life in Guam is normal,” he added.

Bolivar said the Philippine Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, also had contingency plan in place to respond to emergencies.

North Korea’s threat to fire  missiles into the sea off Guam came amid its increasingly heated exchanges with the United States over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program. —WITH A REPORT FROM DONA Z. PAZZIBUGAN