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President Gloria Arroyo will personally send off Monday a 15-member
Philippine humanitarian team to help the victims of a devastating
cyclone that hit Myanmar, a radio report said.
The sendoff is scheduled at 7 a.m. at the
Villamor Air Base, where the team will board a C-130 cargo plane to
Myanmar. The team will include mostly doctors and nurses who will
help provide medical assistance to the victims.
The mission will bring with them some $350,000
in donations intended for the cyclone victims in that country, the
report said
The Philippine government announced early this
month that it will send a medical team to Myanmar to help cyclone
victims after the weather disturbance left more than 20,000 people
dead and 41,000 others missing.
President Arroyo initially directed the
Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Health to
prepare a 15-person team that will fly to Myanmar.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the
Health department coordinated with the government of Myanmar to
determine the type of medicines needed most by the cyclone victims.
Myanmar’s normally secretive ruling military
junta already asked for aid and released details of the devastation.
Sending aid and personnel to Myanmar was not
easy during the aftermath of the disaster because the country’s
ruling military junta was cautious in allowing entry to outsiders,
particularly to westerners.
Even United Nations personnel waited for a while
before they were
given visas to enter the country.
The United States, a vocal critic of the junta,
has already shipped large volumes of relief goods to Myanmar a few
days after the disaster.
-- Angelo S. Samonte
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