GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/29 November)– The Philippine Red Cross (PRC) chapters here and nearby South Cotabato province will temporarily suspend their relief campaigns for survivors of super typhoon “Yolanda” in parts of the Visayas region.
Dixie Villar, PRC South Cotabato chapter administrator, said Friday they will momentarily stop their relief drive starting next week to pave the way for an ongoing assessment of the agency’s relief operations in the affected areas.
“We’re currently evaluating the situation there to determine the most pressing needs of the survivors and resolve some of the logistical problems that we’ve been facing in terms of sending the relief goods,” he said in a radio interview.
Villar said they already sent two batches of relief goods to the affected areas since the typhoon’s onslaught last November 8.
He said they delivered the relief goods, which were mostly donated by local residents, through the PRC chapters in Ormoc and Tacloban cities.
Villar said they are set to send this weekend or early next week the third and final batch of the donated relief goods to the typhoon-hit areas.
Aside from the relief goods, he said they are set to send a package of assorted medicines to the affected areas in Capiz province.
Villar said they are presently coordinating with the PRC chapters in this city and Digos City in Davao del Sur for the schedule of the vessel that will deliver the relief goods.
The three PRC chapters earlier agreed to pool the relief items that they would gather so they can deliver them in bulk.
“So far, we have around 250 sacks and boxes of used clothing, canned goods, bottled water and other food items that are ready for delivery,” he said.
Villar said the used clothing alone, which were already sorted out by their volunteers, comprise 70 sacks and could benefit around 200 residents.
“We initially targeted to send them to Palawan but it’s quite difficult to arrange their delivery because of our problem with logistics,” he said.
Villar added that they’re arranging with the PRC national office to help address the logistical requirements in sending the relief goods from the area to the affected localities. (MindaNews)
