The Sectoral Concerns Office under the Bacolod City Mayor’s Office recently assisted two families in Bacolod City in contacting their kin in Japan.

SCO head Executive Assistant Vicente Petierre III yesterday said they were able to contact Joan Arcolas-Suzuki of Brgy. Estefania who is stranded at the Narita International Airport in Tokyo, Japan, upon her arrival there after a vacation in Bacolod.

He said they were also able to contact Ma. Magdalena Yelo-Ibaraki, a sister of Barangay Captain Marianito Yelo of Brgy. 35, Bacolod, who lost contact with her family when Japan was hit by a massive earthquake on March 11, 2011, the largest in Japan’s recorded history.

Petierre said both are safe and were able to communicate with their families in Bacolod.

He said they contacted them through the Department of Foreign Affairs in Japan and have also requested the DFA to furnish the CMO with the list of Bacoleños in Japan.

Suzuki is married to Japanese national Takao Suzuki of Sendai City, Japan, but her husband could not fetch her at the airport since their city has been devastated by the earthquake.

An 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit northeast Japan last March 11, and triggered the tsunami that claimed several lives and destroyed everything in its path.

The Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod had earlier passed a resolution inquiring from the DFA-Crisis Management Center, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration-Bacolod Office and the Philippine Embassy in Japan with regard to the status of Overseas Filipino Workers in the quake-tsunami affected areas in Japan and if there are OFW’s from Bacolod City who need immediate assistance.

Mayor Evelio Leonardia had said that if there are people who need help in locating their families who are from Bacolod in Japan, the SCO is ready to provide assistance.

He said some have requested for assistance to get plane reservations while there is a threat of nuclear radiation in Japan.

Meanwhile, Petierre said he was informed that Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares has facilitated the travel of the parents of Flory May Talaban of Bacolod to Thailand next week.

Talaban, 28, is now jailed at the Ngam Wong Wan Central Women’s Institution in Bangkok, Thailand after she was arrested last May 3, 2009 for alleged possession of illegal drugs.*CGS

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