Update on Task Force Typhoon Reming
The Volunteer Relief Team that went to Bicol last Thursday, December 7, to deliver the first batch of relief assistance to UCCP member victims came back Saturday morning, December 9. The Team brought to the areas of South and North Bicol P200 thousand worth of goods which include 100 bags of rice, dried fish, mongo beans, sugar, coffee, cooking oil, soy sauce, candles and matches among others.
Based on information we have gathered, super typhoon “Reming,” with international codename Durian, that pummeled the country last November 30, left behind some 1,500 persons killed and missing, after mudslides and floodwaters swamped the villages particularly in Albay province. The typhoon destroyed thousands of houses and school buildings and brought down power and telephone supplies. As of this writing, electrical power is still down in many parts of the Bicol region.
The Volunteer Relief Team that went to Bicol last Thursday, December 7, to deliver the first batch of relief assistance to UCCP member victims came back Saturday morning, December 9. The Team brought to the areas of South and North Bicol P200 thousand worth of goods which include 100 bags of rice, dried fish, mongo beans, sugar, coffee, cooking oil, soy sauce, candles and matches among others.
Based on information we have gathered, super typhoon “Reming,” with international codename Durian, that pummeled the country last November 30, left behind some 1,500 persons killed and missing, after mudslides and floodwaters swamped the villages particularly in Albay province. The typhoon destroyed thousands of houses and school buildings and brought down power and telephone supplies. As of this writing, electrical power is still down in many parts of the Bicol region.
The typhoon also displaced more than 100,000 people and destroyed P4.48 billion worth of crops and infrastructure.
Conference Ministers in South and North Bicol Conferences of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) reported that a total of 21 local churches were either totally or partially destroyed. More than 500 UCCP family members were said to be gravely affected and dislocated as their homes as well as their source of livelihood were badly ruined.
Among the damaged local church buildings are: South Bicol Conference: San Roque, Legaspi Port, Sto Domingo, Malilipot, Tabaco, Tiwi, Camalig, Guinobatan, Pio Duran, Libon. North Bicol Conference: UCCP-Agos, UCCP-Awayan, UCCP-Sta. Cruz, UCCP-Salvacion, UCCPMatan, UCCP-Garchitorena, UCCP-Ason, UCCP-McDonald, UCCP-Tamban, UCCPTinanquihan. Among the buildings destroyed in South Bicol Conference is the official residence or parsonage of the Conference Minister.
Other than the Bicol region, there are also affected churches and UCCP member families in some parts of Southern Tagalog and Mindoro. Rev. Grace Bangisan, coordinator for Mindoro Conference, reported that there are 370 member families in Oriental Mindoro and 204 in Occidental who are directly affected. Rev. Arthur Asi of the Southern Tagalog Conference also informed the office of the South Luzon Jurisdictional Area that many member families and churches in the Bondoc Peninsula Area were also seriously affected by super typhoon Reming.
The situation in said places, particularly in Mindoro and Albay are even made awful and worse by the latest typhoon Senyang that directly hit the Visayas Region but also affected some parts of the Southern Luzon Area.
Task Force Typhoon Reming is set to conduct its second Relief Operation on December 18-21, 2006 in Bicol and in Mindoro island. The group will first bring relief goods to Calapan, Oriental Mindoro on Monday before proceeding to Bicol.
BISHOP JESSIE S. SUAREZ
Bishop Assigned to the Jurisdictional Area
(With reports from Conference Ministers and Task Force Typhoon Reming)
