BY MAVIS N PODOKOLO AND BANARBAS MANEBONA
THE fourth Manila repatriation flight is likely on March 7 but is yet to be confirmed, said Dr Jimmie Rodgers, deputy secretary to the Oversight Committee, yesterday.
“We are looking at one more flight to Manila because we still have more than 40 students left in the Philippines.
“Tentatively this flight is schedule for 7th of March, but we have to reconfirm whether that is the date or it will be delayed because we are trying to also link people from other parts of the world on to that destination,” said Rodgers.
He said this is because there are still some people from the UK, USA, and also there are foreigner nationals yet to come to work on the major projects like the Tina Hydro, the airport construction, the road construction.
“They have been approved to come so we are looking putting them together in one location, to send the flight to Manila to pick them all up rather than trying to get them to transit at Port Moresby. We will confirm within next week,” said Rodgers.
“Last Friday the Oversight Committee tentatively agreed to repatriate the remaining students from the Philippines on March 7. But as SPM has said, there are also other citizens in other countries depending on the numbers we might reorganise those numbers from the Philippines.
“But keep listening out next week for further updates over repatriating our students from the Philippines,” said James Bosamata Deputy Secretary to Ministry of Education Human Resources Development.
