Lucio Tan Group’s relief drive goes full blast

MANILA, Philippines–The Lucio Tan Group’s relief drive went full blast Thursday with the distribution of food, water, medicine, blankets and body bags in various areas hit by floodwaters due to tropical storm Sendong.

Led by its philanthropic arm Tan Yan Kee Foundation and sister companies Asia Brewery, Agua Vida, Tanduay, PMFTC and other partner organizations, the Tan Group began airlifting relief items through Philippine Airlines (PAL). The flag carrier is also working with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private entities for free carriage of relief goods to Cagayan de Oro and Dumaguete.

Items donated by the Lucio Tan Group consist of relief goods for 10,000 families, 350,000 bottles of Absolute and Summit water, clothes and slippers. Two mobile water stations from Agua Vida are also en route by sea and will arrive in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City on December 23. Loaded on trucks and equipped with their own generator sets, the two water stations are capable of producing 16,000 liters of clean potable water per day.

Through Tan Yan Kee Foundation, the Fo Kuang Shan Temple in Taipei donated 1,000 body bags and 5,000 blankets which were airlifted by PAL from Taiwan at no cost. The same were delivered by PAL to Cagayan de Oro for immediate distribution by Tanduay Distillers.

Also in cooperation with Tan Yan Kee, the American Chamber of Commerce will send abaca beddings (banig) and mosquito nets along with 2,000 packages of relief goods comprising of noodles, rice and water.

The Tan Yan Kee Team will be in Cagayan de Oro City on Friday with Fo Kuang Shan Temple representatives led by the Venerable Miao Jing, head of Fo Kuang Shan Temple Philippines, Venerable Miao Geng, Alvin Sia Tan and Beau Florenosos.  Apart from joining relief efforts, the group will also offer prayers for calamity victims.

On Tuesday, PAL Chairman Lucio Tan visited Cagayan de Oro to lead relief operations with top officials of the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Cagayan de Oro Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Federation of Filipino-Chinese Associations of the Philippines, Inc.