By: Eric Apolonio, InterAksyon.com
December 16, 2013 5:12 PM
December 16, 2013 5:12 PM
InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5
The online news portal of TV5
MANILA, Philippines - Following the deaths and
destruction caused by super typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), the Philippines formally requested
the U.S. government to place the country under the Temporary Protected Status
(TPS), the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Monday.
The TPS is a temporary immigration status granted
to foreigners in the U.S. who are temporarily unable to safely return to their
home country because of ongoing armed conflict, an environmental
disaster, or other extraordinary and temporary conditions.
If a country is placed under TPS, its eligible
citizens may stay and work in the U.S.
A TPS does not, however, lead to a beneficiary’s
permanent resident status. If the U.S. government terminates the TPS,
beneficiaries would revert to the same immigration status they had before TPS.
Placing the Philippines under TPS will allow
eligible Filipinos to stay and work in the U.S. "in order for them to
assist in the country's continuing recovery efforts," following the
typhoon killing over 6,000 and affecting 16 million Filipinos, the DFA
said.
The request will be evaluated first by US
authorities. "If approved, eligible Filipinos can start filing their
applications which will be reviewed on a case-to-case basis, the DFA
said.
Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose L.
Cuisia, Jr. conveyed the request on December 13 to the Department of Homeland
Security through a note verbale sent to the U.S. Department of State.
If the request is granted, the Philippines will
join four other countries - El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Honduras – that
were placed under TPS after going through similar natural disasters.
Spearheading the drive for the Philippines to be
placed under TPS are Filipino community leaders based in New York headed by
lawyer JT Mallonga of the Filipino American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Inc. and Ed Navarra, chairman of National Federation of Filipino-American
Association.
Earlier Mallonga told newsman that” while we
are prepared to exhaust all means to get this to the attention of the
President; time is certainly of the essence."
"(T)his is neither a legal nor a political
issue, but a humanitarian one and we hope that our President will act swiftly
on this request from literally almost a million Filipinos in the U.S.,"
added Mallonga.