Parents of missing Negros Oriental OFWs hope to join search in Myanmar
Edsil Jess Adalid and his wife Alexis are missing in Myanmar quake. (Photo from Adalid family)
BAIS CITY, Negros Oriental — The parents of two Filipino teachers who went missing in Myanmar after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake are appealing to the government for help in traveling to the disaster-hit country to search for their children.
Hermosila Adalid, mother of Edsil Jess Adalid, said she and her husband are hoping to fly to Myanmar to find their son and daughter-in-law, Alexis Gale Adalid, who have been missing since the March 28 quake.
“We are not raising our hopes too high and we need to first see at least the list of survivors to verify the information that we received about Edsil and Alexis and we are hoping for the best,” she told the Philippine News Agency.
The couple, both teachers at Mandalay International School of Acumen, had been working in Myanmar for about two years, Hermosila said.
They were renting a unit on the 9th floor of Building D of Sky Villa, a five-building residential complex in Mandalay that collapsed during the earthquake.
Unverified reports suggest the two were rescued and admitted to a hospital, but communication remains difficult in Myanmar due to the prevailing military rule and the widespread damage caused by the disaster.
A Filipino community in Myanmar is aiding in search efforts, while staff from the Philippine Embassy in Yangon are reportedly en route to Mandalay, Hermosila said.
She said her husband, Eduardo, hopes to join the embassy team departing for Myanmar before dawn Tuesday.
Bais City Mayor Luigi Marcel Goñi said the local government has written to the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) in Central Visayas to endorse the family’s request for assistance.
“The families were here this morning and we are doing our best to arrange with the national government through the OCD the possible travel to Myanmar,” Goñi said.
“We also have to follow their protocols considering that it is still chaotic now in the aftermath of the devastation,” he added.
The local government is helping the family secure passports and other necessary travel documents.
Edsil and Alexis are among four registered overseas Filipino workers still missing in Myanmar.
The quake has killed more than 2,000 people, and hopes of finding more survivors beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings are rapidly fading. Thousands more have been injured, and hundreds remain missing.
With communication lines down across much of Myanmar, the full extent of the disaster remains unclear. Authorities fear the death toll could rise significantly in the coming days.
