MANILA, Philippines – Filipino peacekeepers continue to extend assistance to people affected by the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti almost 3 weeks ago.

“We continue to provide necessary personnel for the headquarters. Helping out Filipinos affected by earthquake; helping out the recovery efforts here. Almost daily, the recovery units still recover some cadavers,” said contingent commander, Lt. Col. Lope Dagoy.

The Philippines lost 4 Filipinos in the magnitude 7.0 earthquake last January 12, 2010.  Of the total, 3 were members of the peacekeeping forces while the other one was a UN staff.

“We're all fine here. We’re just taking precautions. Almost daily, we’re experiencing tremors, but we’re all fine,” said Dagoy.

No time to grieve

He said the troops continue to perform their jobs despite also being earthquake victims and having lost 3 members to the disaster.

“We, ourselves, are victims of this earthquake and this feeling that you lost 3 of your men…and still you have to do your job,” he said.

Immediately after the earthquake, the Philippine headquarters was converted into a main emergency center that treats survivors, as roads leading to hospitals were blocked by debris.

“Up to now, I am still trying to talk to my men to explain the difficult situation we are in, but we still have to be strong and be able to perform our given mandate,” he added.

On Tuesday morning, the bodies of Air Force Sgt. Janice Arocena, Navy Data Processor 3 Pearly Panangui, Army Sgt. Eustacio Bermudez and UN Executive Assistance Jerome Yap arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 2 from Los Angeles.

They were given a hero’s welcome at the Villamor Air Base, which was attended by President Arroyo.

2 OFWs still missing

Two overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) identified as Grace Fabian and Geraldine Lalican remains missing. They are believed trapped under the rubbles of the collapsed Caribbean Supermarket in Port-au-Prince.

“I think the last concern now is the retrieval of the 2 remaining OFWs still buried under the rubbles of the Caribbean supermarket,” he said.

ANC reported that rescue teams have ended the search in that area saying there were no more signs of life.

“We're afraid that these 2 bodies would be very difficult to recover,” he said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) earlier said that a total of 64 repatriates were evacuated from Haiti last January 26 and transported to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

So far, the DFA was able to repatriate Filipinos in 3 batches last week. The remaining 41 are set to arrive in Manila within the week.

Terrible experience

According to Dagoy, the earthquake they experienced back home was nothing compared to what they had to endure in Haiti.

“It was terrible. It was unbelievable that we were able to experience that kind of earthquake. You're shaking sideways and upward. At that moment, you cannot run outside of the building. I was inside my room at the time of the earthquake. I was very concerned about my troops,” he said.

He said that most of them want to come home after the earthquake which was followed by frequent aftershocks.

“Of course, they want to go home. But our scheduled rotation is March 10 probably. Another batch of peacekeepers will be coming in and replace us,” he explained.

The Philippine government had sent a medical team to help humanitarian efforts in the quake-hit Caribbean nation.

“The Filipinos are quite safe, and we’re taking care of them. And, to the best of our ability, we will secure them. The medical mission, they're doing fine. They're trying to help some local victims and make sure they can perform their mission also well,” he said. ANC’s Dateline Philippines