MANILA, Philippines – Three Filipino missionaries said they were safe after a new magnitude 5.9 earthquake shook an island in Indonesia on Tuesday, October 2, according to the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

Philippine Ambassador to Indonesia Leehiong Wee said that “the embassy immediately got in touch with the 3 Filipinos in the area, all missionaries, who said that they are all right.”

Wee added that the embassy “continues to monitor the situation” on Flores Island in southern Indonesia, which was struck by a magnitude 5.9 earthquake on Tuesday. The embassy also has its eyes on the ongoing search and rescue operations in Central Sulawesi, said Wee.

Wee reported to Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano that “there were no immediate tsunami alerts or reports of casualties” on Flores Island. The island is located more than 2,000 kilometers from the capital city of Jakarta, said the DFA.

Tuesday’s earthquake comes after another earthquake as well as a tsunami in Indonesia on Friday, September 28. More than 1,200 people died in the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Sulawesi on Friday.  

A Filipino detainee meanwhile went missing due to Friday’s twin disasters. 

“The Philippine Consulate General in Manado said the Filipino detainee, who was earlier reported to be safe, was later reported to have joined the mass jailbreak after the prison was damaged by the earthquake,” said the DFA on Monday evening, October 1. 

The Filipino is supposed to stay in prison until 2021. He was arrested in 2011 then convicted for possessing the illegal drug methamphetamine. – Rappler.com