Albay disaster team, OCD to hold humanitarian mission in Metro Manila

Residents crowd an evacuation center in Legazpi City, Albay. AP FILE PHOTO

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines — Disaster officials of Albay and the Office of Civil Defense (OCD)-Bicol have been preparing to hold a humanitarian mission in flood-stricken areas in Metro Manila, a civil defense official said Wednesday.

The mission dubbed as Team Albay-OCD will hold a two-week humanitarian mission covering Taguig and Las Piñas, the areas hardest hit by flooding due to torrential rains spawned by tropical storm “Maring”, according to Bernardo Alejandro, the director of the Office of Civil Defense-Bicol.

Alejandro in a phone interview said the first batch of humanitarian workers would leave for Manila at 8 p.m. Wednesday while the second batch would leave on Thursday.

The mission will be composed of 80 medical, sanitary and social welfare personnel from the Albay Public Safety Emergency and Management Office (Apsemo), Provincial Social Welfare Office, Department of Health (DOH), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and OCD.

The team will provide medical, water and sanitary services to flooded communities and will bring along a water purifying machine, which could produce thousands of liters of potable water for distribution to residents.

Albay Governor Joey Salceda, in a statement posted in his Facebook account, said the disaster response measure would be its ninth humanitarian mission after similar public assistance services were held in Cagayan, Isabela, Catanduanes, Negros Oriental, Cagayan de Oro, Davao Oriental and in Metro Manila in two previous floodings.

Albay will also launch a donation campaign to help the victims of flooding in Quezon, Laguna, Rizal, Bataan, Pampanga and Metro Manila, according to Salceda.

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