Southern Leyte gives P1M for Metro, Rizal relief
MAASIN CITY, Southern Leyte, Philippines—The Southern Leyte provincial disaster coordinating council has approved a P1 million cash donation to help the flood victims in Metro Manila and Rizal province.
Southern Leyte Governor Damian Mercado, who convened the PDCC last Thursday, said they approved the release of the aid in response to the request of the League of Provinces of the Philippines for jurisdictions not affected by typhoon “Ondoy” to extend financial assistance to the provinces which suffered most.
Mercado said the amount would be shared equally between the Department of Social Welfare and Development central office, which would manage the provision of relief goods in Metro Manila, and the province of Rizal.
Mercado said Southern Leyte’s cash donation was in recognition of how other provinces helped them way back in 2006 when a landslide wiped out the whole village of Guinsaugon in St. Bernard town and killed over a thousand people.
The Guinsaugon landslide made headlines around the world in February 2006 when, after two weeks of heavy rains, a portion of Mt. Kan-abag collapsed, covering Guinsaugon in hundreds of tons of rocks, mud, and debris and burying alive at least 1,000 people.
Mercado, who chairs the PDCC, has set October 9 as the deadline for food and non-food items donations at the provincial capitol.
Noli Casas, chapter administrator of Southern Leyte Philippine National Red Cross, meanwhile, brought to Manila last Saturday the relief goods and medicines that the Red Cross here had so far collected for their relief effort to help the flood victims.
