Fund drive raises P1M for kids who lost parents, kin to Ompong disasters

BAGUIO CITY – Cordillera Binnadang, a philanthropic organization, raised over a million pesos for the education of 49 children who lost their parents to tragedies caused by Typhoon “Ompong” on September 15.

Binnadang is the Kankana-ey term for “helping each other.”

The fundraiser, dubbed Ompong Hope Drive, received overwhelming support from individuals and groups across the country and overseas who poured a total of P1,237,648.93 as of November 30.

Of that amount, P1, 021,526 will be distributed equally in trust accounts to be opened for each of the children this December at the Bank of the Philippine Islands.

Three of the 49 children are Ibaloys who lost their father and three other siblings in a landslide at Kayapa town in Nueva Vizcaya province.

The rest of the beneficiaries are Cordillerans, many of them in the mining town of Itogon in Benguet province, where landslides killed 89 individuals.

Lito and Verga Laguitan, who were swept by the landslide in Itogon’s Luneta village, have not yet been recovered. The Laguitans’ three children are among the group’s beneficiaries, said Annabelle Codiase-Bangsoy, one of Cordillera Binnadang’s founders.

The donors were families, churches, corporations, and civic organizations.

Bangsoy said the Philippines Cordilleran-Australia, a community group of Filipinos residing in Australia, donated P150,000 which were used to buy presents for the orphans. The gifts were distributed by their members in November.

Large donations came from Filipino organizations overseas, among them the Pilipino in Samoa Organization which gave P43, 618; the Filipino Canadian of Vaughan and Bibak Toronto, P53,648; the Igorot People of Cambodia, P56,085; and BIBAK Southeast, P79,107.

The group also set up a toy drive which has collected stuffed toys, action figures, books, and even clothes.

Bangsoy said some of the toys and clothes were given to children in need at the Tabu Elementary School in Itogon while another set of toys would be distributed on December 17 in selected Itogon day care centers.

Earlier, Cordillera Binnadang raised P2.5 million for the families of the 14 Cordilleran members of the Police Special Action Force who were killed in the 2015 botched operation at Mamasapano in Maguindanao province.

It also raised P459,150.44 for the families of the nine policemen and soldiers who died in the Marawi siege in 2017. Karlston Lapniten