BARMM’s relief aid reach Taal eruption victims

By Ali Macabalang

COTABATO CITY – The relief team from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has delivered to Batangas authorities its P2-million worth of relief items for Taal volcano eruption victims.

Workers and volunteers of the BARMM’s Rapid Emergency Action on Disaster Incidence (READI) program spent the final leg of their four-day mission in Lipa City on Friday, relief team leader Nagub Sinarimbo announced Saturday.

“Alhamdulillah (praise God), we’ve traveled over a thousand kilometers safely and fulfilled our mission with love for our compatriots in distress,” said Sinarimbo, who led his team all the way from this city to Batangas by land.

Sinarimbo, BARMM spokesman and concurrent Local Government minister, and his pool of trained volunteers were sent off by regional Chief Minister Ahod “Hadji Murad” Ebrahim in symbolic ceremony here last Tuesday, which also marked the first anniversary of the plebiscite that led to the establishment of the new autonomous governance.

The BARMM team initially delivered some relief goods at incident command posts in other areas of Batangas before reaching Lipa City on Friday, READI volunteer media relations facilitator Myrna Jo Henry said.

Henry said Lipa City’s Disaster Risk Reduction Management Officer Leo Tadejapo Jr. received Friday morning from Sinarimbo the bulk of the BARMM team’s relief goodies ferried by two air-conditioned trucks.

Lipa City hosts more than 6,000 families, consisting of 30,000 individuals, affected by the Taal volcano eruption, Henry said. She added there was still a “continuing influx” of evacuees to the city.

Displaced couple Roberto and Susan affirmed that the BARMM-provided relief items were the “best packed” assistance they have received so far.

The transparent plastic box containing 20 kilos of assorted relief goods will be “useful also in keeping our small items in disarray during our displacement,” Roberto told the Manila Bulletin in Pilipino.

The couple said the BARMM’s relief intervention dramatized “national unity in time of peace and distress, regardless of religions and tribes.”

Each of the hundreds of boxes contained 10 kilos of high quality rice, canned goods, medicines and other basic relief items, Henry said.

https://news.mb.com.ph/2020/01/25/barmms-relief-aid-reach-taal-eruption-victims/