DAVAO CITY — At least four Caritas Internationalis member countries have pledged more than P8 million for the ongoing relief operations being headed by the Philippine Catholic Church for victims of Typhoon Lando (Koppu).
In a statement, the Catholic Church’s social action arm, the National Secretariat for Social Action (NASSA)/Caritas Philippines, said that among those who pledged its support are Caritas Germany with P2 million, and Caritas Spain with P2.5 million.
The Catholic Relief Services (Caritas USA) and Cordaid (Caritas Netherlands) also contributed P2.12 million, and P2.32 million, respectively.
“These amounts would surely go a long way in helping those in need of immediate assistance, especially as many typhoon affected-communities have yet to receive humanitarian aid. To all Caritas-member countries, our heartfelt thanks again,” NASSA/Caritas Philippines Executive Secretary Fr. Edwin Gariguez said.
Gariguez said they expect more pledges from Caritas-member countries in the coming days as the relief operations continue.
NASSA/Caritas Philippines earlier launched an emergency appeal to the Caritas Internationalis confederation to provide P13.21 million worth of relief aid to 25,000 people in 15 provinces affected by Lando. These are the provinces of: Aurora,Quezon, Cagayan, Nueva Vizcaya, Qurino, Nueva Ecija, Kalinga, Benguet, Pangasinan, Zambales, Rizal, Cavite, Batanes, La Union, and Abra.
A ‘Lando’ Monitoring Center was also established at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines office in Intramuros, Manila. (davaotoday.com)
