Abu Dhabi, September 30: Filipinos across the UAE are pooling their resources to help their compatriots who have been affected and displaced by tropical storm Ketsana during the weekend.
In a meeting on Monday night at the Philippine Embassy, Filipino community leaders, group representatives and volunteers were in consensus that the best way of extending immediate help to the 1.87 million Filipinos displaced by typhoon ‘Ondoy’, and who are in dire need of food and water, will be by cash donations.
The community leaders will coordinate donation collection and remit the cash to the official channels suggested by the Department of Foreign Affairs in a circular on Monday. The organisations include the National Disaster Coordinating Council, Department of Social Welfare and Development and Philippine National Red Cross.
Noel Servigon, Consul-General and Charge d’Affaires at the Philippine Embassy who facilitated the meeting, urged the community leaders to make a progress report every week and submit it to the embassy, starting October 5, for the total donations remitted, the beneficiaries and provide copies of the transactions. The embassy will tally all donations sent from here and this will be reported to the department and will be pasted at the embassy for accountability.
As many Filipinos may wish to send help by “balikbayan box” or relief goods, Servigon advised them to coordinate with the shippers due to several restrictions on sending them.
Manny I. Inserto, assistant vice-president and regional head of Remittances for Middle East and Africa, Global Banking Department of LandBank, said he would provide a guarantee for any large sums of donations that would be remitted. He added that he would speak with the exchange houses for possible waiver of service charges for donations being sent to the victims.
Several community groups also plan to initiate various programmes to raise funds. Baltazer Junio, a member of the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants and Pangasinse, said both groups were looking at holding a “dinner for a cause”.
Two photographers’ groups, Shootercada and Lightsource, have organised “Oplan Ondoy”, a walk for a cause at 5am at Lake Park Gazebo on October 2. The Dh50 registration fee will be donated to victims of the typhoon.
As of Tuesday, the National Disaster Coordinating Council confirmed that a total of 240 people were dead with 101 of the fatalities coming from Metro Manila and 88 in Rizal province. Nearly 40 people are still missing.
–Agencies