Wednesday, May 14, 2008 RP to send medical team to China
THE Philippines will send a medical team to China to help the Chinese government in the relief operations following a magnitude 7.9 quake that resulted in the death of nearly 10,000 persons.
Deputy presidential spokesman Anthony Golez said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Tuesday has ordered the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) to send the 15-member medical team.
He said the health and foreign affairs departments and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are meeting on it.
"Every time we have disasters in the country, it only takes hours for China to send help. This is one way to reciprocate their generosity and kindness to the Filipino people. As soon as the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) gives the go signal we will mobilize to China," Golez said.
He said the Chinese Embassy would decide where the Philippine medical team would go. He said a medical team sent by the health department would normally be composed of 12-15 members that include doctors like pediatricians and psychiatrists and even sanitary engineers.
He said the DFA is also checking whether there were Filipinos among the casualties.
Golez also said the 15-member Philippine medical team to Myanmar has not left the country because of lack of necessary travel documents.
He said what happened in Myanmar would not happen to the Philippines because of the modernized forecasting and warning systems of the weather bureau.
There is also the coordination among warning agencies, and the disaster preparedness campaign of the NDCC.
He said the Philippines has already weathered the same cyclone that hit Myanmar, not once but four times in 2006, when it was hit by four super-typhoons late in the year.
He said the Philippine government now implements forced evacuations like what Albay Governor Jose Salceda did -- evacuating close to a million people in his province in preparation for an incoming super typhoon. (JMR/Sunnex)
