The government is optimistic that the international community’s overwhelming generosity for the victims of tropical storm ‘Ondoy’ (international name Ketsana) would continue in the coming months. Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. on Wednesday told GMANews.TV that the earthquake in Indonesia and the tsunami in Samoa may overshadow foreign relief efforts in the Philippines. "We don’t know how it [relief efforts] will be sustained," said Teodoro, who also heads the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC). During the formal launch of the United Nation’s tropical storm “Ketsana" Flash Appeal at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza hotel in Manila, Teodoro thanked the international community for the expeditious aid for Ondoy victims.
"In behalf of Her Excellency, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the Philippine Government and the Filipino People, I thank the United Nations for its expeditious action in responding to the Philippine request for international humanitarian assistance by launching the Flash Appeal in so short a time," he said in his speech. The UN and the Philippine government sought US$74, 021, 809 to meet the urgent needs of one million Filipinos affected by Ondoy, which on Sept. 26
unleashed a record rainfall in a span of six hours, submerging many areas in Metro Manila and outlying provinces in floods and killing close to 300 people. An earlier appeal
was held in Geneva, Switzerland. UN resident coordinator to the Philippines Jacqui Badcock said 44 countries had participated in the appeal. The UN usually issues Flash Appeal during disasters or natural calamities in a country where it sees that the government would have a hard time addressing the immediate needs of the victims. It also provides the framework for a common inter-agency understanding of needs and priorities based on the best information currently available and will be revised after a month, when it will present a more complete picture of current humanitarian needs and pace of recovery. This is not the first time the UN has called for a flash appeal for areas battered by strong storms in the Philippines. In 2006, the UN called for a $45million flash appeal for the immediate relief of typhoon-ravaged communities in the Bicol region ravaged by typhoons Milenyo, Reming and Seniang, according t UN development programme communication officer Danton Remoto. The UN had also called for a $100 million flash appeal for victims of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar. According to Badcock, the funds generated from the six-month Kestana flash appeal would target the food and health relief of almost four million affected by the tropical storm. Health Secretary Francisco Duque said water supply is crucial in the relief efforts for Ondoy victims. He said, about 50 percent of residents in Marilao town in Bulacan were hit by diarrhea after drinking contaminated water following Ondoy’s onslaught. Duque said that a hospital in Marikina City, the Amang Rodriguez Memorial Center, had incurred damages worth between P300 million to P350 million due to floods. He added that the total budgetary support needed for Ondoy-damaged hospitals have reached P650 million.
- GMANews.TV 
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