BAGUIO CITY — The Filipino-Chinese community and the local government here both vowed to aid the thousands of families affected by the eruption of Mayon volcano in Albay province.
“The local chapter is simply awaiting the directive from its mother chapter which is directly in touch with the Office of the President on the appropriate assistance it can extend,” Peter Ng, president of the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCCI) in Baguio-Benguet told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Friday.
Ng said the local Filipino-Chinese community would course its aid through the national federation of the Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which links with its local chapters for support to such endeavors.
He said his group is ready to give its share, which they do on many occasions, where their assistance is sought.
He said it has been the local Filipino-Chinese community’s commitment to help calamity victims in different areas in the country.
In a separate interview with the PNA also on Friday, Baguio Mayor Mauricio Domogan said: “We will surely send the local government’s assistance to the victims of the eruption of Mayon volcano. We are simply awaiting the recommendations of the social welfare department on the priority needs of the victims, so that the city will be able to provide its assistance to what the calamity victims direly need.”
Last year, the local government of Baguio waited for the recommendations of the social welfare department before it delivered goods to identified evacuation centers in war-torn Marawi City.
Domogan views extending the appropriate assistance to calamity victims in any part of the country important for Baguio City, just like how the people of Baguio were recipients of assistance from other places in the country after the city was devastated by an intensity 7.9 earthquake on July 16, 1990.
The city’s Operation Sayote also became known after the major eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991, as the local government, in partnership with the media group Baguio Correspondents and Broadcaster Club and the private sector, delivered tons of highland vegetables to the different evacuation centers in Pampanga, Zambales, Tarlac, and Bataan. The relief operations then lasted for many years. (Liza Agoot/PNA)
