A DISASTER response team has been deployed to provide humanitarian assistance to Central Sulawesi in Indonesia, where at least 2,000 people were killed when an earthquake followed by a tsunami struck on September 28.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana led the send-off ceremony at the Villamor Air Base of a 25-man disaster response team headed by Office of Civil Defense deputy administrator Nicanor Faeldon. The team left in one of the Philippine Air Force’s C-130 planes.
“This is just a request by the Indonesian government if we can provide some humanitarian assistance for the victims of the earthquake in Palu so this request has been given to us since last week and it took us a while to prepare for the goods as I’ve said a while ago, we could’ve reacted earlier, had we not had a disaster here in the Philippines lately up to now were still retrieving the bodies in the landslide,” said Lorenzana.
“There will be two sorties of our C-130 one today and another on the 15th and at that time the C-130 will stay there for quite some time to help the ferrying of goods,” he added.
On September 28, a magnitude 7.5 earthquake that generated a tsunami hit Central Sulawesi and left at least 2,000 people killed.
The Philippines was also struck by Typhoon Ompong, which caused a massive landslide in Itogon, Benguet. At least 70 people perished.
Another landslide in City of Naga, Cebu also claimed more than 60 lives. (Third Anne Peralta-Malonzo/SunStar Philippines)