SBMA heeds PNRC call for flood aid

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT , Philippines  – The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) dispatched rescue vehicles, rubber boats and another batch of rescue personnel to Marikina City on Thursday in response to the call for assistance by the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC).

SBMA administrator Armand Arreza said they mobilized their rescue and relief operations into higher mode to help provide food and other basic necessities to flood victims in Metro Manila, and search for missing persons in the aftermath of tropical storm “Ondoy.”

Arreza said the rescue contingent includes firemen, harbor patrol personnel, and even common employees willing to set up camp to help out in various operations at the PNRC emergency station at the Blue Leaf Events Pavilion in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City.

The first batch of search and rescue personnel was dispatched last Sunday, along with rubber boats and other emergency equipment, to Marikina.

Some 1,100 bags of relief goods, each containing five kilos of rice, four cans of sardines and six packs of instant noodles, were hastily packed by SBMA employees “to immediately build up the food stock” at the PNRC emergency station.

The SBMA also sent 35 bales of used clothing, along with 12 cavans of rice.

Arreza said more relief goods will follow, as the SBMA continues to gather more donations from the hundreds of business locators in this freeport.

“It has become a tradition here to send out goods to calamity-stricken areas where the SBMA rescue team is dispatched,” he said.

Before Ondoy struck, the SBMA rescue team was busy in Botolan, Zambales, which was again hit by floods.

Meanwhile, Chief Superintendent Leon Nilo de la Cruz, Central Luzon police director, led the distribution of relief goods to flood victims in the Bulacan towns of Meycauayan, Sta. Maria and Bocaue last Thursday, as part of his command’s “Oplan Saklolo.”

De la Cruz said different provincial police offices and non-government organizations donated the relief goods.