ASEAN assists Philippine earthquake victims

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has taken prompt humanitarian actions to help victims of the recent 7.2-magnitude earthquake hitting Visayas, central Philippines.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has taken prompthumanitarian actions to help victims of the recent 7.2-magnitudeearthquake hitting Visayas, central Philippines.

According to the latest press release of the ASEAN Secretariat, theASEAN Humanitarian Assistance (AHA) and the ASEAN Emergency RapidAssessment Team have coordinated with local agencies to make initialassessment and prepare relief stuff to assist the affected community.

AHA has so far shipped 250 family tents capable ofhosting 1,250 people, and 250 household commodity kits to the sitethrough the Disaster Emergency Logistics System for ASEAN, which wasestablished with the support of the Japanese Government via theJapan-ASEAN Integration Fund.

Dela Rosa Alicia Bala,Deputy-Secretary General for ASEAN Culture-Social Community,underscored that it is high time for the association members to provesolidarity and sympathy. She affirmed that the grouping is ready to helpthe people of the Philippines overcome disaster consequences andrecover.

According to the National Disaster RiskReduction and Management Council of the Philippines, more than 3million people in the country were affected by the devastating quake. Asof October 18, the death toll was 171. The disaster also left 375people injured and forced 97,000 others to evacuate, the councilreported.-VNA

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