No ban on sending workers to South Korea, says Malacañang

November 28, 2010 - THERE IS no ban on sending of workers to South Korea, officials said yesterday, with concerned agencies reviewing future deployment.

Deputy Spokesman Abigail D. Valte clarified a Palace statement at the weekend which stated that President Benigno S. C. Aquino III has suspended the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to South Korea.

"There was confusion. Some media thought there’s a ban on deployment. It’s not the case," she said over state-run dzRB Radyo ng Bayan.

Reports about the policy circulated after Labor Secretary Rosalinda D. Baldoz said in a statement that the departure of 55 OFWs for South Korea last week has been deferred to Dec. 7.

"There is no order to suspend temporarily the deployment of overseas Filipino workers to South Korea," Ms. Baldoz clarified in a statement yesterday.

"The government team, headed by Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Alberto Romulo and which the President had directed to assess the situation, had recommended this decision [deferment of departure] as a matter of caution and prudence," Ms. Baldoz added.

Further decisions to deploy OFWs, she said, will have to be reviewed by the team of Special Envoy Roy A. Cimatu of the Presidential Middle East Preparedness Committee. The group has been ordered to go to Seoul to monitor the situation.

The Palace said on Friday the government has a contingency plan for the over 50,000 Filipinos in South Korea in case hostilities escalate ,with the President directing the DFA to conduct test runs of evacuation strategies.

The Office of the President has also conferred with officials of major local carriers for assistance should there be a need to evacuate Filipinos.

The fragile peace in the Korean peninsula was shaken Tuesday after the North shelled civilian communities in the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong.

The North has claimed it was provoked by the South. Tensions heightened as United States and South Korean forces held earlier scheduled joint military exercises in the area at the weekend, with Washington sending the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington and several warships. -- Ana Mae G. Roa, http://www.bworldonline.com