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One Filipino dead, 22 others missing in wake of killer tsunamis
MANILA (AFP) Dec 30, 2004
One Philippine woman has been confirmed dead and another 22 are still missing in the Asian tsumamis, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Thursday.

Sharleen May Ang Tan was confirmed by her sister to be among the dead in a hospital in Phuket, Thailand, it said.

The department said it was also still checking if 16 fatalities in Phuket with Philippine-sounding names might in fact be Filipinos.

The Philippines was spared the wrath of the killer tsunamis that left more than 81,000 dead in 11 countries on Sunday but there is concern that some of the estimated eight million Filipinos working abroad might be among the casualties.

Embassies and overseas workers welfare offices had said 22 Filipinos in the affected areas were still missing, the department said, without specifying where they went missing.

A Philippine forensic team is being sent to Thailand to help identify those killed in the disaster.

Despite appeals to the public to inform the government if any of their relatives in the afflicted regions are missing, no one has yet come forward to say a relative has disappeared or may be dead, the department said.

Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and the Maldives were among 11 countries that were hit by the deadly towers of water.

So far only the embassy in Myanmar has confirmed that no Filipinos in that country were affected.

President Gloria Arroyo said on Thursday she was ordering the foreign and labor departments to check all travel records of Filipinos to the countries affected by the tidal waves.

"We shall account for any of our countrymen who could have been among the casualties," Arroyo said.

The Philippines has said it would be sending medical aid teams to Thailand and Indonesia and is arranging to dispatch one to Sri Lanka as well.

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