Donations pour in amid relief work lull

27 September 2007
By Ephraim Aguilar
Guinobatan, Albay

GIVING RELIEF ASSISTANCE 10 months after Supertyphoon “Reming” brought tragedy to Bicol may seem a little late, but for Tagas International, an organization of Filipino immigrants in the United States from Guinobatan town in Albay, it simply waited for the “right time.”

That time, according to Tagas local representative Lorenzo Baybay, was when the election fever had died down and doleouts from politicians had vanished in a snap.

Baybay said the group foresaw a gap in relief donations when the government had become busy with rehabilitation and other projects and when nongovernment organizations had started to shut down one by one.

Tagas, or the Taga-Guinobatan (from Guinobatan) Association, raised more than $13,000 (over P500,000) from about 50 immigrants in the US. The money is now being used to assist some 100 families of typhoon victims and to hold feeding programs in evacuation camps in Guinobatan.

The organization also distributed 30 piglets to several families for them to start an alternative livelihood.

Quintin Garcia, 62, a tax auditor of California and president of the Tagas International, said he first learned about the tragedy in his hometown through television. Mudflows from Mount Mayon struck Barangay Maipon, burying houses and hundreds of people.

“I saw a very gut-wrenching and troubling scene, with hundreds of dead bodies stacked like animals outside the mortuary in Guinobatan. I couldn’t sleep that night,” said Garcia, who has lived in the US since 1973.

He said he received calls from Manila-based Tagas members asking for help.

“I sent appeals through e-mail and our Yahoo group. We received responses immediately a day after the appeals were sent,” Garcia said during a feeding program in Barangay Minto.

Tagas International was formed in 1994 as a social club and venue for the reunion of Guinobateños in the United States every two years in the US. It began sending medical missions to Guinobatan in 1994, benefiting 500-600 people.