Typhoon Haiyan: Before and after
The Singapore Armed Forces is sending S$120,000 worth of relief supplies to the Philippines to help with the relief effort following the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan.
This is in addition to the S$200,000 contribution from the government announced earlier.
The supplies include tents, groundsheets, medical supplies, and blankets.
These will be transported over in two tranches by the Republic of Singapore Air Force using the C-130 aircraft.
Anarchy spread across Philippine city demolished by one of world's strongest typhoon
As anarchy spread across a Philippine city demolished by one of the world's strongest typhoons, a 13-year-old boy holding a toy car and walking alone at night was slashed across the neck and stabbed in the stomach.
Jonathan Salayco said he was on the debris-strewn streets of disaster-hit Tacloban when two men he did not know pounced late Tuesday, attacking him with a knife before disappearing without a trace.
"He was still holding his toy car," said Mina Joset, a Red Cross nurse at Tacloban hospital where Salayco was brought in on Wednesday morning.
Famished and destitute survivors desperately searched for food following the storm, some resorting to looting. Others took advantage of the post-disaster chaos to steal not only food and water but also consumer items from televisions to toys.
To restore law and order, the government has sent almost 2,000 police, soldiers and special forces to patrol and man checkpoints on Leyte island. A night-time curfew is also in force.
Philippine typhoon survivors loot
Five days after one of the strongest storms ever recorded slammed into cities and towns in the central Philippines, anger and frustration boiled over today as essential supplies dwindled.
Tacloban city administrator Tecson John Lim said 90 per cent of the coastal city of 220,000 people had been destroyed, with only 20 per cent of residents receiving aid.
Eight people were crushed to death when looters raided rice stockpiles in a government warehouse in the town of Alangalang, causing a wall to collapse, local authorities said.
Warehouses owned by food and drinks company Universal Robina and drug company United Laboratories were ransacked in the storm-hit town of Palo in Leyte, along with a rice mill in Jaro.
“The looting is not criminality. It is self-preservation,” said Mr Alfred Li, head of the Leyte Chamber of Commerce and Industry told Reuters.
Mass burial cancelled as Philippines anger turns deadly
Gunfire forced the cancellation of a mass burial in the typhoon-ravaged Philippines on Wednesday as authorities struggled to dispose of the dead, while anger among survivors at the slow trickle of aid turned deadly.
Attempts to bury some of the victims of Super Typhoon Haiyan suffered a setback when gunshots halted a convoy travelling towards a communal grave.
"We had finished digging the mass burial site. We had the truck loaded with bodies... but... there was some shooting," Tacloban mayor Alfred Romualdez told AFP. "They could not proceed."
Provide more aid, please
I applaud our Government for dispatching Singapore Civil Defence Force personnel to Tacloban, the city in the Philippines that was worst hit by Typhoon Haiyan, and donating $200,000 to the disaster relief efforts.
However, Singapore has the capacity to do more.
Taiwan has pledged US$200,000 (S$250,000) in immediate cash aid despite its spat with the Philippine government over the fatal shooting of a fisherman, and New Zealand is donating up to US$1.8 million.
Sam Wu Shao Zong
Merely offering cash not enough
Typhoon Haiyan has left a trail of human misery in the Philippines. As a concerned neighbour with the means to help, and with a large number of Filipino workers here, Singapore should offer as much assistance as it can.
However, I am not in favour of merely offering cash. Instead, we should use any donations to buy the necessary items such as food, medicine and tents, and later on, help to rebuild the infrastructure lost or damaged in the disaster.
This will be a concern for many donors. To ensure help reaches those who need it most, we should adopt a more proactive role and take the needed supplies to Ground Zero. This can be in the form of direct delivery by our navy's landing ship tanks or airdrops.
Peter Loon Seng Chee
Filipinos worldwide mobilise to help typhoon victims
Filipinos abroad who have spent harrowing days trying to contact loved ones after a typhoon devastated their homeland are mobilising to send relief, despite misgivings about corrupt local officials pocketing aid on the ground.
With thousands feared dead and aid only trickling in after Super Typhoon Haiyan laid waste to entire coastal towns Friday, from Asian capitals to the United States and Europe, Filipino communities are taking to churches and social media sites to raise funds for communities left with nothing - and growing increasingly desperate.
Rahmatan Lil Alamin organises donation drive for Typhoon Haiyan victims
The Rahmatan Lil Alamin Committee, which represents all mosques in Singapore, is organising a donation drive in aid of victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the committee said Rahmatan Lil Alamin Foundation (RLAF) donation boxes will be placed in all 69 mosques on Friday to collect relief funds for the victims.
The boxes will be marked "Singapore Muslim Community's Special Collection for Typhoon Victims in the Philippines".
Proceeds will go to Mercy Relief, which is sending over a second team to deliver help on the ground to those affected by the typhoon.
The committee said those who wish to contribute to the fund may also issue cheques made payable to "RLAF', with the words "Humanitarian Relief Effort for Victims of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines" written on the back.
No comments:
Post a Comment