The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) receives 800 metric tons of rice bags from the People’s Republic China through the efforts of the ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR).
“At the onset, I would like to express my heartfelt condolence and deepest sympathy to the Government of the Philippines and to the people of the Philippines for the devastating effect of Typhoon Yolanda or Haiyan,” said NongnochDeetae, General Manager of APTERR, during the ceremonial turn-over at the National Food Authority Compound, North Reclamation Area, Cebu City.
“Amidst the darkness and typhoons there is still a radiant light by having the ASEAN country emergency rice reserve as a permanent mechanism to respond and assist in emergency situation as well as for humanitarian purposes,”Deetae underscored.
After Yolanda hit the country, the National Food Authority (NFA) requested rice assistance to the APTERR secretariat based in Thailand.
Mercedita Jabagat in red vest, Regional Director DSWD-7, takes the bag from Bernadette Romulo-Puyat in blue dress, Undersecretary of Department of Agriculture during the turn-over of rice from People’s Republic of China. Present in the ceremonies were Cebu Province officials and representatives from Ministry of Agriculture of the People’s Republic of China and ASEAN Plus Three Emergency Rice Reserve (APTERR).
“We quickly made an appeal to the APTERR member countries for voluntary contribution and we received positive feedback from them,” she added.
Aside from the 800 metric tons of rice from China, other countries like Malaysia, Thailand and Japan will also send their rice donations.
DSWD-7 Regional Director MerceditaJabagatextends her gratitude to the Chinese government and assured that the donation will reach to the disaster affected families in central visayas.
The 10,000 rics bags will be given to Bohol and the remaining 6,000 will be donated to Cebu.
APTERR is a regional cooperation standing on humanitarian ground with professional and business sense operation. This organization established under the purview of theAssociation of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus three countries like People’s Republic of China, Japan and Republic of Korea to secure food security in an emergency caused by temporary and large scale calamity.
Post a Comment