Saudi Arabia extends help to Mindanao tremor-stricken communities

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Local executives are glad with the relief support from Saudi Arabia for families badly affected by the Magnitude 7.8 earthquake that jolted on June 8 many areas in the Bangsamoro region, in Regions 10 and 11 and in the Zamboanga peninsula.

South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo, Jr., told reporters on Wednesday, July 29, that he and his constituents are grateful to the central office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Embassy of Saudi Arabia for having crafted on Tuesday an agreement pertaining to the relief assistance that its government shall extend to Mindanao residents affected by the calamity.

The strong tremor destroyed more than P700 million worth of houses, classrooms, big buildings, hospitals and other vital infrastructures in Region 12’s adjoining South Cotabato and Sarangani provinces and in its two neighboring cities, Koronadal and General Santos alone.

The Embassy of Saudi Arabia shall channel the relief assistance for at least 120,000 individuals in tremor-stricken southern cities and provinces, through The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre, also known as the KSrelief.

Under the agreement forged by the Embassy of Saudi Arabia and DSWD’s Disaster Response Management Bureau, the Saudi Arabian government shall provide 15,500 hygiene kits, 15,500 shelter kits and 150 mobile latrine facilities the relief sites, where there are still thousands of displaced residents, in Jose Abad Santos and Malita towns in Davao Occidental and in the provinces of Sarangani, South Cotabato, and Sultan Kudarat.

“We are thankful to the government of Saudi Arabia for this big help for residents of the municipalities and cities in Region 12 that got devastated by an earthquake last June,” Tamayo, chairperson of the multi-sector Regional Peace and Order Council 12, said on Wednesday.

Dozens of houses, big buildings and classrooms in different towns in South Cotabato and in its capital, Koronadal City, were destroyed by the June 8 earthquake, as reported by local executives and the nurse Rolly D. Aquino, chief of their Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office.

More than 30 villagers in Sarangani and South Cotabato and General Santos City died from injuries caused by the earthquake, which also triggered landslides in hinterlands in the three areas.

“We ought to thank the Embassy of Saudi Arabia and the central office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development for embarking on this relief support mission for residents of certain areas in Region 12 displaced, left homeless by last month’s earthquake,” said Cotabato Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza, chairperson of the Regional Development Council 12.

Members of the RPOC 12 and the RDC 12, led as chairpersons by Tamayo and Taliño-Mendoza, respectively, are supporting the calamity impact mitigation operations of the local government units in Region 12.

Taliño-Mendoza said she is grateful to the government of Saudi Arabia, a petroleum-exporting country in the Middle East, belonging to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, whose member-states supported the crafting of the Philippine government’s separate peace compacts with the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front that have members residing in areas hit by the June 8 earthquake.