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THE
business sector has actively pitched in relief
operations for victims of tropical storm Frank, which
hit 32 provinces during its dizzying assault at the
weekend, spawning rains and floods, cutting power and
causing a ferry with nearly 800 onboard to capsize off
Romblon.
Among
those that have been doing their part are the Henry Sy
Group’s SM Foundation, Petron Corp. and Asian Spirit.
The SM
Foundation’s medical mission flew to Iloilo City Tuesday
morning to assist SM malls in Iloilo which have become
evacuation centers. At the height of the typhoon, SM
offered its mall as an evacuation center of Iloilo
residents whose homes were covered with waist-deep and,
in some areas, neck-deep floodwaters. While some of the
evacuees have returned to their homes to begin clearing
activities, some 250 families, whose members are mostly
children and the elderly are still housed in the mall.
The
medical mission headed by Connie Angeles, executive
director for Health and Medical Services of the SM
Foundation, together with volunteer doctors and nurses
of the Department of Health will meet up with volunteers
doctors from the Western Visayas Medical Center to set
up clinics in the malls and in the municipality of
Pavia. They will later move around Iloilo City to attend
to all typhoon victims.
Meanwhile SM’s Operation Tulong has likewise arrived in
Iloilo, Capiz, Antique and Aklan bringing relief goods
to flood victims. SM pails containing rice, canned
goods, mats, blankets and drinking water are being
distributed in ravaged areas of these provinces.
Replenishing centers of the relief goods are located in
the malls of Iloilo and Bacolod.
Angeles
reported that the Foundation will purchase a mobile
clinic for use in the Visayas while another one will be
acquired and based in Cagayan de Oro City. “This way
residents can avail of the use of the mobile clinics
without waiting for the mobile clinics based in Manila
to navigate the long ro-ro trip to these areas,” she
adds.
Asian
Spirit,, for its part, is making “mercy flights” to
Kalibo, Aklan, one of those hardest hit by Typhoon
Frank.
Board
director Art Alejandrino said the AMY Foundation of
airline owner Alfredo M. Yao will be sending “bottled
water, food supply and instant noodles onboard our
flights making use of every extra space available on the
planes for these supplies.”
He said
flight attendants will be accepting donations from
passengers for the typhoon relief effort. The carrier
has also offered to carry the relief goods of GMA
Foundation to typhoon-hit areas for free.
Alejandrino said relief goods would also be brought to
Antique on June 27, as the carrier relaunches its
service to the capital of San Jose. Flights to San Jose
will be four times weekly, every Monday, Wednesday,
Friday, and Sunday.
Earlier,
Petron Corp. agreed to accept donations for typhoon
victims at its various retail outlets nationwide, after
President Arroyo sounded a call for help among
Filipino-Americans in the US. |
