HIT by frequent natural disasters herself, Turkey sympathizes and stands by the people and government of the Philippines to recover from the deadliest ever typhoon that left huge devastation in its trail and loss of human lives.
As soon as the death toll and the destruction across 41 provinces caused by the super typhoon started to hit the world headlines on Sunday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered for the start of Turkish humanitarian aid to the Philippines immediately.
He also asked his Deputy Prime Minister, Besir Atalay to fly to the Philippines to convey his condolences personally and to assess the situation for further help to meet immediate needs of the victims.
With 65 tonnes of aid consisting of nearly 500 family tents, 550 kitchen sets and over five thousand blankets, the A330 cargo plane chartered from the Turkish Airlines, along with Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey, Atalay, and head of AFAD, Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Agency, and high ranking officials of the Turkish Red Crescent arrived in Manila Monday afternoon.
Atalay and his team handed over the humanitarian aid to the Philippine Red Cross on Tuesday morning and visited Richard Gordon, Chairman and CEO of PRC, in his headquarters to be briefed about the scale of the disaster and assess the immediate needs of the victims.
Atalay also met Philippine Vice President Jejomar Binay in his office and offered condolences and sympathies of the Turkish nation and said, “We are ready to provide further help as much as we can to alleviate the suffering of the victims of this huge natural disaster.”
Binay invited the officials of the Turkish delegation to join in an afternoon meeting he presided over to discuss providing permanent housing units in the affected areas.
Also speaking at the Typhoon Yolanda Action Plan meeting held at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Atalay stressed the importance of international solidarity on such disasters and the effective management of the relief operation.
He said a Turkish search and rescue team and a team of medics on stand-by in Istanbul will be displaced to the area.
Officials of AFAD and Turkish Red Crescent have been in talks with their Philippine counterparts to determine and provide further assistance including urgent need of food and other supplies. (PR)