Albay relief team to leave for Mindanao Saturday

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines—A 72-member humanitarian relief mission from Bicol led by Albay by Governor Joey Salceda and other disaster mitigation veterans of the province is to leave Saturday for Campostela Valley and Davao Oriental to assist in the relief and rehabilitation operations in those two disaster-stricken provinces.

They will bring with them a water purifying machine that could produce thousands of liters of potable water for distribution to local residents.

The mission, called “Tabang MindaNow,” will hold a medical, sanitary and relief mission on Dec. 8 to 18 in the towns of Cateel, Baganga and Boston in Davao Oriental and the town of New Bataan in Campostela Valley, the areas ravaged by Typhoon Pablo (Bopha) on Tuesday, according to Bernardo Alejandro, chairman of both the Office of Civil Defense and the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council in Bicol.

The mission is spearheaded by the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Office (Apsemo), an office under the provincial government of Albay that has also been involved in past relief operations in Metro Manila and Mindanao when the storms Ondoy (2009) and Sendong (2001) ravaged these areas.

Cedric Daep, the head of Apsemo, led the Tabang MindaNow advance team that left for Davao Oriental Friday, Alejandro said.

Alejandro said the Albay-led team would be coordinating its relief operations with those being undertaken by the local government of the affected towns.

The team will bring along a water purifying machine that would produce thousands of liters of potable water for distribution to residents there, he said.

The humanitarian mission is a joint undertaking by OCD-Bicol, the provincial government of Albay, and the regional offices of the Department of Health, Philippine National Police, and Armed Forces of the Philippines.