MANILA: As more relief aid from Brunei, China and New Zealand came in, Cabinet secretaries prepared to distribute 173,000 Christmas Eve food packs in areas affected by typhoon Bopha.
Each pack, wrapped in native fabric called malong, contains one and a half kilos of rice noodles, two cans of corned beef, two packs of fudge bars, a can of fruit cocktail, a can of condensed milk, a box of cheese, sandwich spread and a pack of chocolate candies.
As of yesterday, a total of 452,798 family food packs amounting to P566m had been distributed to the affected families, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) reported.
Meanwhile, New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully announced that an additional NZ$1.5m (about P50.8m) would be made available for relief and recovery efforts, on top of $500,000 (P16.9m) previously donated by Wellington to the International Federation of the Red Cross. The contribution includes NZ$1m to support the United Nations Children’s Fund in providing access to safe water and sanitation facilities.
“The New Zealand government extends its deep sympathies to the Filipino people for the loss of lives and extensive damage brought by typhoon Bopha. We hope that our contribution will aid in the rapid recovery and rehabilitation of Filipino communities,” said New Zealand Ambassador Reuben Levermore.
The DSWD also received a P6.4m donation from the government of Brunei Darussalam for the construction of additional core shelters for typhoon victims in Mindanao.
Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said the funding will be used for the construction of core shelter units in Cagayan de Oro City, the area severely affected by tropical storm “Sendong” in 2011.
Chinese Ambassador Ma Keqing on Friday handed over a cheque for $200,000 to the Department of Foreign Affairs as the Chinese government’s assistance to victims of typhoon Bopha. The Red Cross Society of China had earlier donated $30,000 to the Philippine Red Cross.
The Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE), on the other hand, has distributed P750,000 in financial assistance for displaced banana plantation workers.
Labour Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz met with the banana plantation workers in Tagum, Davao del Norte and assured them of continued assistance until they get their jobs back.
DOLE released livelihood grants of P250,000 each to three workers’ organisations whose members were affected by the typhoon.
Baldoz said that DOLE has allocated all its remaining resources for 2012 for the emergency employment and livelihood programmes for typhoon-affected workers in Mindanao.
The three workers’ organisations — Nagkahiusang Mamumuo sa Suyapa Farm; Freshmax Workers’ Union; and Nagkahiusang Mamumuo sa San Jose — have been accredited by the DOLE regional office as co-partners in the implementation of the DOLE Integrated Livelihood Programme towards Community Enterprise Development (DILP-CED).
In the meantime, about 3.6m members of the Social Security System (SSS)’s “declared and may be declared” calamity areas can now avail themselves of the calamity package to help them and their families recover from the devastation caused by the typhoon.
The areas currently include Palawan, Siquijor, Cebu, Lanao del Norte, Misamis Oriental, Compostela Valley, Davao Oriental, Davao del Norte, Surigao del Sur and Agusan del Sur.
SSS president and chief executive officer Emilio de Quiros Jr said the three-part relief package offers renewal of salary loans, advance release of three months’ worth of pensions, and a two percent cut in interest rates on the SSS Direct House Repair and Improvement Loan.
As this developed, US military forces conducted aerial surveillance in typhoon-devastated provinces of Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley to speed up assessment for search and relief efforts.
The US military special units under the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P) surveyed 37,980 square kilometres and provided 600 images for the military advisers on the ground who would assess the damage and facilitate the delivery of relief aid and supplies where these are most needed.
In a statement, the US embassy said the US military utilised a P3-Orion spy plane in searching for survivors in coastal areas in Sarangani, where around 300 fishermen were reported missing in the aftermath of typhoon Bopha. The search covered 7,200 nautical square miles.
The Philippine Star
