MANILA (UCAN): Caritas Philippines has called on Catholics and the private sector to provide water and food to victims of flooding in the Visayas and Mindanao regions of the Philippines caused by torrential rain from 25 to 31 December 2022.
The floods left more than 50 people dead and displaced about 50,000 people. In Misamis Oriental province, hundreds of elderly people and infants were evacuated.
“Caritas calls for donations to provide relief and rehabilitation assistance to our brothers and sisters in Misamis Occidental who were affected by the flooding. The voluntary support for this fundraising campaign will go a long way in helping communities and families recover from the devastation caused by the flooding,” Father Jason Frias, external affairs committee chairman of the local Caritas office, said.
“Their immediate needs are ready-to-eat foods like noodles and canned goods, drinking water, hygiene kits like soap, and medicine kits as some of them already have fever due to the rain,” Father Frias said.
The death toll from flash floods and landslides caused by Christmas Day rains in the southern Philippines rose to 51, with 36 others still unaccounted for, the national disaster agency said on January 1.
The disaster agency also revealed a total of 13, 814 families displaced due to flash floods met the New Year in evacuation sites such as basketball courts and school classrooms.
“We are appealing to the generosity of many who may not have a lot but those who are living comfortably. If we can give a few bottles of water, let us give to those who are suffering from the flood. They have no homes right now,” Caritas secretary, Donald Hizon, said.
“Many of the fatalities were in towns in the north-eastern section of the mineral-rich island of Misamis Oriental, which bore the brunt of the flooding and where forest cover has diminished over the past decade due to excessive logging and mining,” Filipino environmentalist, Bagua, explained.
Bagua said there were no more rocks and trees to hold the water that led to the disaster.
As we celebrate the 500 years of Christianity in the Philippines. The Chaplaincy to Filipino Migrants organises an on-line talk every Tuesday at 9.00pm. You can join us at:
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“The trees supposedly meant to hold rainwater including loose boulders or rocks and soil from mountainsides are no longer there, so who’s going to hold them?” Bagua regretted.
