HUMANITARIAN CALL | Philippine Red Cross raising P1 billion in foreign aid for Odette-hit areas

December 22, 2021 , 04:04 PM

By Clarist Zablan

(December 22, 2021) – The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) has called on the international community to help the people in typhoon-stricken areas in northern Mindanao region and in the Visayas region, asking for about P1 billion to provide for immediate relief and long-term rehabilitation, the humanitarian agency’s head said on Tuesday.

Senator Richard Gordon said several countries, like Japan, Kuwait, the United States, Norway, and Sweden, have called up and offered to send foreign financial assistance. The Red Cross is planning to raise CHF20 million, or about 1 billion pesos, to help the country recover from Typhoon Odette, the most powerful to hit the country this year.

“A lot of people have relied on us in the international community,” Gordon said on Cignal TV’s One News channel’s program ‘The Chiefs.’ “We have appealed for 20 million Swiss francs para sa ganon all the other societies in the Red Cross Movement can help.”

Gordon said the Red Cross hoped to raise enough funds for disaster response.

Several foreign nations – including the United States, European Union, China, United Kingdom, and Canada – have already sent to the Philippines.

Typhoon Odette, internationally known as Rai, unleashed destructive winds and torrential rains, killing at least 177 and causing massive damages to infrastructure and agriculture totaling over half a billion pesos. The national police has estimated a higher death toll of 375.

Odette was packing center winds of 195 kpn and gusts up to 240 kph when it slammed the surfing island of Siargao, losing strength as it crossed the country’s belly before exiting to the South China Sea.

The military said the typhoon also destroyed military installations and structures in Philippine-held features in the Spratlys, including in the main Pagasa Island, damaging soldiers’ barracks and other facilities. Gordon said many of the hardest-hit areas, such as Siargao Island, Palawan, Cebu, and Bohol, had been relying heavily on tourism to generate income, and were already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic restrictions when they had to take a hit from the typhoon.

“People are already having a hard time with COVID, and now we’re exacerbating this with almost a Haiyan replica disaster,” Gordon said. “This is how big it is. It occupied several major provinces, some have been isolated, there are people, especially, when you talk of the economic condition of the people, there are four major provinces that rely on tourism.”

President Rodrigo Duterte promised to release P10 billion sourced from his office to provide for the basic needs of victims of the typhoon, although he has been insisting that the nation is now running low on funds for disaster response due to the coronavirus pandemic. But Gordon begged to differ.

“The President says wala na raw siyang pera . I think there will always be money, but the important thing is to use that money wisely,” Gordon said.

(MM)

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