MANILA, April 8 -- The search for the four missing Filipinos still continues as the Myanmar government shifts from the search and rescue to retrieving bodies in earthquake-stricken sites, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Tuesday.

"The Myanmar government is now in the stage that they are not anymore in the search and rescue stage but ano na parang identification of remains nalang (as it seem now only identifying the remains), meaning they absolutely do not think of the possibility that there will be more survivors found," DFA Undersecretary for Migration Eduardo Jose de Vega said in a media interview.

De Vega said local authorities are now with the assumption that "everybody in buildings which fell down would have already die...