Russia hands out donation for quake victims

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

MANILA — Donations for victims of the magnitude-6.9 earthquake that struck provinces in Visayas early this month continue to pour on Wednesday as Russia turned over set of goods to Philippine government officials.

The Russian donation consisted of 900 boxes (32,400 cans) of canned meat, 300 boxes (14,400 cans) of canned fish, 10 tons of sugar, 160 pieces of tents, and 3,000 pieces of blankets worth $614,860.

The first batch of shipment arrived in the country on February 11, and was immediately transported to Dumaguete City on February 12 and 13 through C-130 plane, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

The second batch of shipment arrived on February 15 and placed temporarily at the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) National Resource Operations Center (NROC) in Pasay City waiting for the next C-130 flight schedule to Dumaguete.

At least 43 people were killed by the quake, the strongest to hit the island of Negros since the magnitude-8.2 tremor in 1948, which failed to cause massive damage. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)