The Philippines is prepared for a “nuclear emergency” in the event of a meltdown in an earthquake-crippled nuclear facility in Fukushima, Japan.

Health Secretary Enrique Ona, Science and Technology Secretary Mario Montejo and Philippine Nuclear Research Institute Director Alumanda de la Rosa, stressed in a press briefing in Malacañang yesterday, however, that it is “highly unlikely” that radio activity deposition will reach the country.

The three officials said there is no scientific and technical basis that radioactive plume or nuclear fall-out from Fukushima-Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants will hit the Philippines as wind projection heading east of Japan towards the Pacific Coast and is definitely going thousands of kilometers away from the Philippine territorial seas. The Philippines lies south of Japan.

The Philippine Embassy staff in Tokyo and their dependents yesterday began evacuating to the Philippine consular office in Osaka, Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. said.

Negrense Grace Horii, who heads the Philippine Tourism Office at the Embassy in Tokyo, called the governor yesterday morning to inform him that the staff were being transported to Osaka on a C-130 after a fourth reactor at Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant exploded yesterday.

The embassy personnel were given the option to move to Osaka or to continue to serve Filipinos from Tokyo, she said.

Japan's nuclear crisis has sparked panic buying of iodine pills, with online bids exceeding $500 for a single packet, but health experts hosed down the hysteria and warned that the pills are of limited use.

In Bacolod City, Negros Occidental Provincial Health Office Ernell Tumimbang yesterday also said betadine is not a deterrent against radiation, amid reports that its sales had increased after a hoax text message circulated in the province Monday.

The text message advised the public to “Swab neck skin with betadine where thyroid area is because radiation hits thyroid.”