Binay: Government ready to evacuate Filipinos in Iran

PHILIPPINE embassy officials in Iran assured that the government has contingency plans in place to ferry out Filipinos living in Iran in case the nuclear plants in the oil-rich country are attacked.

Vice President Jejomar Binay, who arrived from Iran last Saturday after attending the 16th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit, said he was briefed of the contingency plan by Charge d’Affaires Mariano Dumia in Tehran.

There are over 3,640 Filipinos in Iran as Binay expressed confidence that the undisclosed plan would work.

Reports said the United States has plans in place to attack Iran’s nuclear sites if necessary to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons. The Iranian government has since denied the charge, saying its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, like energy production.

Meanwhile, Binay said he and Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi discussed the possibility of increasing Iran’s import of Philippine bananas and opportunities for increased Iranian investments in the Philippines.

“We agreed to encourage our respective chambers of commerce to discuss the various ways and means of engaging in expanded investments and trade. Officers and members of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce may be coming to the Philippines soon as a result of this initiative,” he said.

NAM is a 51-year-old union of 120 developing countries within the United Nations, of which the Philippines has been a member in good standing since 1991. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)