The volunteers are plentiful.
So are the relief goods.
Now the problem is finding trucks to pull them out of the Cebu International Convention Center (CICC), which was converted into a 24-hour repacking center starting Thursday evening.
About 5,500 sacks of relief goods were stuck yesterday at the CICC in Mandaue city for lack of transportation.
The Department of Social Work and Development (DSWD) is asking government partners to provide hauling trucks .
“From here, all of these sacks will be brought to the Mactan Airbase and Pier 3,” said DSWD monitoring officer Andres E spolita Jr.
DSWD counterparts in Leyte will handle distribution of the relief packs to survivors in different towns.
A total of 4,200 volunteers registered at the CICC since Thursday to help out.
The target is to prepare 150,000 family packs within ten days, the period which the Province of Cebu allowed agencies use of the CICC for free.
So far, 37,750 relief packs have been prepared said Nila Fidellaga of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda).
The CICC operation is supposed to be the biggest repacking site in the Visayas, Cebu being the staging ground of relief operations for the storm-devasted towns in Eastern Visayas.
The site has not run out of volunteers.
Tesda secretary general Joel Villanueva was overwhelmed by the response of volunteers.
Among them was American tourists Kim Chappell, 34, and Celisse Muller, 29, who are visiting the Philippines for the first time. “We came to the Philippines for a business trip, but right now, we’re taking the weekend off to help,” said Chappell.
Senior citizens also pitch in.
Pedila Bacaro, 68, joined the thousands of volunteers at the CICC.
“Makatabang lang gyud sa akong isig katawo (I will help my fellow men),” Bacaro said.
In Leyte, PO2 Jan Hamilton Tapa was among those who delivered three truckloads of relief goods to survivors.
“I saw my fellow police officers evacuate their families from Leyte to Cebu because they have no resources there,” he said./ STC Intern Fresha Endico