US sending more men, aid, choppers

MANILA, Philippines—The United States is dispatching medical teams and supplies worth $4 million, heavy equipment and helicopters in an expanded relief operation that is expected to boost Philippine initiatives for flood victims in Metro Manila.

Speaking to reporters during a visit at Diosdado Macapagal Elementary School at Barangay Tatalon in Quezon City, US Ambassador Kristie Kenney said that part of the joint military exercise midmonth would be transformed into an aid operation.

“We are working with the Philippine armed forces to redirect a long-planned exercise,” Kenney said at the school crammed with evacuees.

“There will be medical teams, equipment to help clear debris, bulldozers, forklifts, and we will have some heavy-lift helicopters so we can help start cleaning up Manila so people can move on with their lives,” she added.

Kenney said that 30 to 40 US medical teams would arrive within the next 24 hours to work with the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) and other nongovernmental organizations.

She said that heavy equipment like bulldozers, forklifts and heavy trucks would be brought here by ship from Okinawa to help clear up the debris and that six Chinook helicopters would transport relief goods to the worst affected areas.

Kenney said the US Embassy was working with the Armed Forces of the Philippines to redirect the long planned amphibious landing exercise next month by mobilizing the participating US Marines to the relief effort.

“They are arriving in the next several days. So we should have all that in place by the weekend,” Kenney said.

“We’ll take the lead. What we’re trying to do is to put ourselves at the disposal of the Red Cross so we tell the Red Cross what we have to bring here,” she added.

Kenney said that she had informed Sen. Richard Gordon, PNRC chair, that the United States will bring mosquito nets, tents and other basic relief supply from the US Agency for International Development.

Response to RP appeal

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration has appealed for international assistance in its relief operation, declaring that its resources had been strained by the latest disaster to hit the country.

Response to the appeal has been swift. The United States was among the first to respond, directing some troops involved in humanitarian activities in strife-torn Mindanao to flood-stricken areas of Metro Manila to rescue trapped survivors.

The United Nations has announced it was issuing a “flash appeal” from its major donors to fund emergency relief efforts in the Philippines by its agencies, including the World Food Programme and the Department of Humanitarian Affairs.

German Ambassador to Manila Christian-Ludwig Weber-Lortsch announced that his government was providing 500,000 euros (roughly P35 million) to the Philippines. The amount will be placed at the disposal of the German Red Cross and other German relief agencies and their local counterparts.

Hidenobu Sobashima, Japanese Embassy chargé d’affaires, said that Japan would turn over on Thursday P10 million worth of relief aid, including 1,500 sleeping mattresses, 1,500 blankets, 20 water tanks, 1,500 polyester tanks and 15 water purifiers.

On Wednesday, Chinese Ambassador Liu Jianchao handed a $100,000 check to acting Foreign Secretary Franklin M. Ebdalin for the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) relief effort.

The Chinese Embassy earlier donated US$10,000 to the PNRC. A Chinese company, Huawei Technologies Philippines, gave $30,000 to the DSWD.

US, UN equipment

Medical missions for at least 16 US soldiers participating in the RP-US exercises are to begin Thursday in Cainta, Pasig and Marikina, according to Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr.

The AFP spokesperson said some of the 3,000 US soldiers expected to participate in the exercises began arriving Wednesday night from Okinawa and Hawaii.

Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr. told a briefing Wednesday that a bulldozer and a payloader from the United States had arrived—part of the US commitment that included five 7-tonner trucks, five Humvees, two forklifts and two bulldozers.

The United Nations also announced the arrival of three helicopters and 30 rubber boats in 72 hours, Teodoro said.

Going to Mindanao?

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, however, was suspicious of the US humanitarian initiative, in spite of the government’s tacit admission of its inability to cope and the US history of massive involvement in Philippine disaster relief in the past.

“I don’t believe this is mere coincidence,” Santiago, chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, told reporters.

“First, the Americans get killed and all of a sudden they’re sending troops here to help in the (flood) stricken areas?” she said, referring to a bomb attack Tuesday by Abu Sayyaf bandits on Jolo island that killed two Americans involved in building a school there.

For one, she said the Philippine military could perfectly well take care of relief efforts for the flood victims.

Who invited US?

A critic of the Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States, Santiago said that there was “no sure-fire guarantee that they will confine themselves to these humanitarian or philanthropic mission.”

“What I’m worried about is they might go to Mindanao afterwards,” Santiago said.

She questioned who invited the US troops and whether they came on their own.

“But the fact they’re in uniform raises the suspicion—Is this coincidence after two Americans were killed or are they being sent here to the Philippines to help beef up 600 troops in Mindanao so that they can retaliate against the so-called terrorists in that area?” Santiago asked. With a report from Agence France-Presse