MANILA: A $10m (P408.6m) allocation from the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) will be given as lifesaving assistance to thousands of families affected by Typhoon Bopha.
It will target seven key sectors that the government has identified as immediate priorities, including emergency shelter, debris clearing, water and sanitation, nutrition, protection and health.
David Carden, head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Philippines, said: “The CERF’s timely and significant support will play a critical role to take early action and response to reduce the loss of life.”
The international community is seeking $65m to respond to the immediate humanitarian needs in Davao and Caraga regions.
To date, donors have given or pledged $38m to support the humanitarian efforts in eastern Mindanao.
United Nations agencies, the International Organisation for Migration and their humanitarian partners will step up relief efforts and life-saving activities in Davao and Caraga regions most affected by the disaster.
Bopha crossed Mindanao on December 4 and 5. It affected 6m people, partially or totally destroyed more than 200,000 houses and displaced over 970,000 people. More than a thousand people have died and hundreds remain missing.
Luiza Carvalho, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, said when she visited the affected areas a few days after the disaster she was shocked at the scale of the destruction.
Houses torched in Maguindanao
COTABATO City: Gunmen burned down three houses as they harassed a farming village near the town proper Montawal in Maguindanao province on Thursday night.
Local officials are certain the attackers are members of a family locked in a standing “rido” or clan war with Andi Montawal, an older brother of Montawal’s incumbent municipal mayor.
Forces of both families have clashed for at least five times, using assault rifles and shoulder-fire grenades from October to December 2012.
The hostilities between the two groups erupted when Montawal and his followers killed in a shootout a member of the other clan in an earlier incident in a nearby town in North Cotabato.
The two groups have since been fighting each other in encounters, displacing innocent villagers.
The Philippine star
