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The United States presidential candidate and Senator Barack Obama
has called on the US government to help the Philippines in its
relief operations in the wake of a devastating typhoon disaster,
according to a statement issued by Obama and published by local TV
network ABS-CBN News on Saturday.
Obama said the US should also help the
Philippines deal with the effects of soaring food prices, according
to the statement, which was issued during a visit to the US by
President Gloria Arroyo.
“I wish first to express my sympathies through
President Arroyo to the victims and families of Typhoon Fengshen,
which has just hit the southern portion of the Philippines, leaving
tremendous devastation in its wake. I urge the US government to
provide emergency support to alleviate the suffering caused by this
catastrophic natural disaster,” said Obama.
The local name of Fengshen is Frank.
Obama said that together, the US and the
Philippines “must address many challenges going forward, including
. . . implementation of recently-authorized Millennium Challenge
Account assistance, and alleviation of the effects of the global
food crisis on the Philippines.”
Obama, who spent his childhood in Hawaii where
there is a big Filipino community, said he had learned about the
Filipino people and their culture during that time.
French Ambassador to the Philippines Gerard
Chesnel has handed over a donation of 70,000 euros for the typhoon
victims to the president of Philippine Red Cross, Sen. Richard
Gordon, said the French Embassy in Manila on Saturday.
The Spanish government will send a military
plane to the Philippines to deliver medicines and a water-purifying
machine for the typhoon victims, Press Secretary Jesus Dureza also
said Saturday.
The plane will come from the Torejano military
base in Madrid and will land in the typhoon-damaged province of
Iloilo, central Philippines, on June 30 in time for the
Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day.
-- Xinhua
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