2 Filipinos confirmed dead in Turkey quake

FLATTENED Rescue workers look for survivors amid the rubble of a building in the rebel-held town of Jindayris on Feb. 10, days after a strong earthquake hit Turkey and Syria. —AFP

At least two Filipinos living in Turkey were confirmed to have died after a devastating magnitude 7.8 earthquake nearly flattened a handful of provinces in the country.

The Philippine Embassy in Ankara confirmed that two out of the three Filipinos earlier reported missing have died after being found in the city of Antakya.

“It is with deepest regret that the embassy must inform the public of the passing of two Filipinos, both earlier reported to be missing in Antakya. The embassy and consulate general express their deepest condolences and are in coordination with the victims’ families in both the Philippines and in Turkey,” the embassy said in a statement on Feb. 10.

In a message on Twitter, President Marcos on Friday mourned the death of the two Filipinos in the Turkey quake.

“It is with deep regret that we learn of the passing of two Filipinos in the recent 7.8-magnitude earthquake that devastated Turkey,” the President said on Twitter.

Found alive

The embassy also confirmed that a Filipino that was earlier reported dead was found alive in the city.

“The team has successfully evacuated more than 10 Filipino families from the city of Antakya … The families are currently being shuttled back to Ankara, Turkey’s capital, where they will be sheltered,” the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said in a statement on Friday.

A major earthquake hit more than a dozen provinces in Turkey and Syria on Feb. 6, flattening buildings and burying people alive. As of Feb. 9, the total death toll in Turkey hit 12,391 and 3,042 in Syria.

PH team starts work

The embassy said 248 Filipinos lived in the 11 heavily affected provinces of Turkey. The 82-man contingent the Philippines sent to aid Filipinos arrived on the afternoon of Feb. 9 in Istanbul.

In a press briefing on Friday, Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) spokesperson Assistant Secretary Bernardo Rafaelito Alejandro IV said the contingent officially started work around 1 p.m. on Friday (Manila time) in Adiyaman province, around 800 kilometers south of the capital Ankara, where they were assigned.

The team carried with them 13,412 kg of medical supplies and equipment; tents; food rations; and tools and equipment for search and rescue operations.

Meanwhile, the family of one of the overseas Filipino workers who died in the quake in Turkey on Friday appealed to Marcos to help them bring her remains back home to Lucena City, Quezon province.

Wilma Tezcan, 45, a child-care worker in the city of Istanbul, was one of two Filipinos who died in the quake.

Tezcan’s father, William Abulad, 67, said they were desperate to bring his daughter’s body back home after learning from news reports that the fatalities were being buried right away in mass graves.

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