MALOLOS
CITY—As the number of victims of super typhoon Yolanda climbed to 4,460 in the
Visayas, a US-based power company vowed to match donations of its
Filipino-America employees.
But
donations are not limited to Filipinos living in California, but to other
nationalities as Southern California Edison (SCE) joined the relief campaign by
its Filipino staffs.
The
campaign was even posted on SEC’s website and facebook account along with a
story encouraging people to donate.
“To
assist the people in the Philippines, SCE’s parent company Edison International
will be kicking off a Typhoon Haiyan Disaster Relief Campaign on Nov. 15 in
which the company will match each employee-donated dollar up to $25,000. The
campaign will go through Feb. 28, 2014. There will also be a Facebook campaign
through Nov. 21 for the community where Edison International will match “likes”
up to $5,000,” the story said.
The
story which was posted on the SCE website added, “contributions from employees
and customers will be donated to Doctors Without Borders, Gawad Kalinga USA and American National Red
Cross, nonprofits equipped to help with the immediate needs of those devastated
by the typhoon including providing food, water, shelter and medical care.”
It
also quoted Janet Clayton, the senior vice president of Corporate
Communications for Edison International and SCE saying “we have a strong Filipino presence in our
employee base who may have family and friends impacted by Typhoon Haiyan. It is
in times like these that we are reminded that natural disasters can occur
anytime and so we need to be prepared.”
For
Filipino employees of SCE like engineer Roderick Dela Cruz, the images of the
devastation Typhoon Haiyan has brought to his home country of the Philippines
is heart-wrenching.
However,
Dela Cruz is thankful his family resides in Bulacan in the northern part of the
country, and was spared any major loss.
A
senior engineer with SCE who for the past four years has been working with the
Philippines government on dam safety, Dela Cruz was quoted saying “the magnitude of [the typhoon], it’s really
surprising “I was not expecting it — it’s mind-blowing.”
Another
employee identified as Antonio Manimbo, a telecommunications engineer was also
mentioned in the story.
It
said that Manimbo was watching a Filipino news channel, when reports started
coming in about “the biggest storm ever” to hit his homeland. When the video
footage started pouring in, he immediately made calls to his family back home.
Fortunately,
his family lives in northern Philippines and were not affected.
But
sadly, some of his fellow members in FilBarkada, an SCE Filipino American
employee resource group, have still been unable to reach family members back
home.
“They
still can’t get in touch with them,” said Manimbo, who also serves as president
of FilBarkada.
As
this developed, the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA) reported that as one of the largest catastrophes to ever hit the
Philippines, super typhoon Yolanda has displaced over 900,000 people and
affected more than 11.8 million people.
Citing
reports from the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council and the
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the OCHA said there were a
reported 4,460 deaths as of November 14.
However, Malacanang said the next day that casualties are below than what OCHA reported. Dino Balabo
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