A second batch of Filipino disaster responders is set to fly to Myanmar today, April 2, to assist in ongoing search, rescue, and medical relief operations following the devastating 7.7-magnitude earthquake that struck on March 28.
According to Health Secretary Ted Herbosa, the new 33-person team joins the first group of 58 responders who arrived on April 1. The Philippine mission is in response to a direct request from Myanmar, which sought medical assistance and urban search-and-rescue support. Thailand, despite also being affected, did not request help from the Philippines.
The deployment includes 32 members from DOH’s Philippine Emergency Medical Assistance Team (PEMAT), specifically from the Eastern Visayas Medical Center. Their tasks include acute medical care, trauma response, pharmaceutical support, and isolation services for communicable diseases.
The team is also coordinating efforts to locate four missing Filipinos and support ongoing rescue missions in collapsed structures. Urban search-and-rescue specialists from the Bureau of Fire Protection were part of the earlier group sent.
As of Tuesday, the earthquake death toll in Myanmar has reached 2,719, with 4,521 injured and 441 still missing, according to Reuters.