Filipina Women in the U.S. Call for Sendong Relief Donations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 31, 2011

Reference: Raquel Redondiez, Chairperson, GABRIELA USA
gabrie…@gmail.com

Filipina Women in the U.S. Call for Relief Donations for Victims of the Natural and Man-Made Disaster that has Taken the Lives of Thousands of Women and Children in Southern Philippines

Just days before the Christmas holiday, Typhoon Sendong (Tropical Storm Washi) hit two major cities of the northeastern region of Mindanao in Cagayan de Oro and Ilagan.  It is confirmed that more than 1,200 lives have been claimed thus far, and more than one thousand people are left unaccounted for.  Hundreds of thousands are left homeless as rampant rainfall and flash floods swept away and destroyed whole villages in what many weather experts claim to be the worst storm to hit Mindanao in over 60 years and the world’s deadliest storm of 2011.

A majority of the victims killed by the massive typhoon were women and children.  Already in a state of economic crisis, the climatic tragedy has exacerbated the worsening livelihood of many of the people of this region, whose lands have been overtaken by mining and logging corporations, destroying the environment. The flash floods following the massive rainfall was caused primarily by deforestation which allowed the rain water to easily slide down the mountainside, when typically having trees help control the flow of water.  The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said the Cagayan de Oro River also failed to hold the huge amount of rainfall brought by tropical storm Sendong that eventually poured into the 2 low-lying cities.

Multinational corporations which are backed by the Philippine government under the Mining Act of 1995,  have continued to plunder the Philippines of its natural resources, bloating the pockets of big businesses and corrupt politicians who benefit from it, while the majority of the Filipino people suffer from poverty.  Mining and logging have been detrimental to the people of this region and other part of the Philippines, and the cause for rampant human rights abuses by the Armed Forces of the Philippines in attempts to clear the land.

Raquel Redondiez, Chair of Gabriela USA states “This is not only a natural disaster, but a man-made calamity caused by government neglect and corruption and corporate greed.  Like Typhoon Ondoy, the human toll would not have been so severe if not for the decades of environmental denigration and if the basic infrastructure was in place for the communities affected.”
GABRIELA USA and its member organizations are working together with Bayan USA and the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON) in relief efforts to help the people of Mindanao hit hardest by this calamity. Fundraising events are being held in major cities in the U.S., including a New Year’s Eve fundraiser tonight in San Francisco.

Any donation amount will help! Please submit your donations via the GABRIELA USA Paypal Donate button: http://gabusa.org/ 

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GABRIELA USA is a grassroots-based alliance of progressive Filipino women’s organizations in the United States seeking to wage a struggle for the liberation of all oppressed Filipino women and the rest of our people.