A THOUSAND families in Barangay Poblacion West in Umingan, Pangasinan were the latest beneficiaries of the Inquirer relief drive for victims of Tropical Storms “Ondoy” and “Pepeng.”

“It’s the first time for the barangay to receive relief goods,” said Megi Garcia of Inquirer Corporate Affairs, who led the group of Inquirer volunteers in distributing relief packs yesterday (Friday). “The area is no longer flooded, but we saw how their houses have been destroyed.”

Wind was already picking up in the area when the Inquirer group arrived, and the residents had already been informed about the places they could evacuate to in the event that the water rises in their area again in anticipation of typhoon “Ramil.”

“They’ve already wrapped some of their things with plastic and stored them in higher areas inside their houses,” Garcia said. “One of them even bore a hole in a wall of their house so that the water would not rise inside it,” she added.

Since its launch on Sept. 29, over 14,000 families have already received relief packs containing rice, canned goods, biscuits, noodles, water, coffee and sugar in affected areas of Pasig, Quezon City, Marikina, Taguig in Metro Manila and provinces of Laguna, Rizal, Bulacan, and Pangasinan from the relief drive.

To date the drive has received around P3.3 million in cash donations and several donations in kind, including rice and water, from individuals and companies alike.

The latest donors to the relief drive include the LRP Foundation, Lyra Garcellano, Flordeliza Viernes, Carlos Rufino, Rudy Soriano, WDC Finance, Inc., Ciachowski family, Makati Shangri-La and TriDharma Corp.