Medical aid worth $1.5M airlifted to ‘Yolanda’ victims

Witnessing the CMMB-UPS medical airlift, from left: Ramon Villongco, Suffolk County Asian American Advisory Board; Libby Carroll, Office of the Nassau County Executive; Deputy ConGen Zaldy Patron; Fe Martinez, PIDCI President; Consul General Mario De Leon, Jr.; Chris Peck, UPS HR Vice President; Johnny Rustia, AARP Asian Community Ambassador; Darnelle Bernier, CMMB Director; Marlon Nufable, MCN Global CEO; and Tomoko Torii, the Harmony for Peace Foundation’s Executive Director.

Logistics giant UPS, the Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB), the ABS-CBN Foundation, the Harmony for Peace Foundation, Philippine Independence Day Council, Inc. (PIDCI) and other community groups recently joined hands to provide critical medical supplies to victims of Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan).

New York Consul General Mario P. De Leon, Jr. and Deputy ConGen Zaldy Patron extolled the business-nonprofit partnership on November 26 at the CMMB Distribution Center in Long Island City as $1.5 million worth of antibiotics, anti-diarrheal and wound care products, gloves, face masks, bandages, splints, saline solutions and other hospital supplies were loaded onto a UPS truck for air transport via UPS.

In a joint statement by Ramon Villongco, chairman of the Suffolk County Asian American Advisory Board and overall project facilitator, and PIDCI president Fe Martinez, the shipment “was the first time that critical humanitarian aid of this scale was airlifted to the Philippines instead of being sent as ocean cargo, which takes much longer in transit while victims’ survival hangs in the balance.”

United Parcel Service Regional Representatives Chris Peck, UPS vice president of Human Resources and Daniel Cardillo, Employee Communication Manager for the East Region and Community Service Manager Lauren James arrived at the distribution center with a 40-foot container truck to pick up the life-saving cargo, the second in a series of CMMB disaster relief shipments from the US to central Philippine provinces.

At the CMMB Distribution Center, Consul General De Leon also cited the tireless work of the Fil-Am community in the relief effort, including Dr. Evangeline Manjares, president of the Filipino Children Fund, Inc. (FCF), which was the CMMB cargo’s consignee, as well as Belinda Pagdanganan, and Tony and Baisy Apostol who helped secure the medical donations from charitable organizations and individuals.

CMMB has so far collected essential supplies amounting to 11 bulk shipments, valued at $5 million. Of that total amount, $400,000 worth of hospital provisions was airlifted to Cebu City a week earlier through the help of Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano. Woodbury (NY)-based Service By Air Global Logistics provided technical, manpower and logistical support to expeditiously fly the cargo to the Philippines.

The CMMB-UPS airlift was one of the latest in an ongoing wave of public-private partnerships on behalf of millions of Filipinos displaced or injured by the strongest hurricane ever recorded, which exceeded 200 mph, according to John Nielsen-Gammon, climatologist at Texas A&M University.

Supertyphoon Yolanda is the second-deadliest Philippine typhoon on record, with 5,560 fatalities to date and 1,757 still unaccounted for, according to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA); the death count is expected to rise due to injuries and disease.

CHA also reported that across the central Philippines, some 13.17 million people have been affected, and over 3.62 million remain displaced from their homes. Latest field reports show that more than 220,000 survivors are encamped at 1,104 evacuation centers.

Dozens of nations have responded in a mass outpouring of support that matched Yolanda’s massive scale of destruction. At press time, even global celebrities such as Beyoncé, Justin Bieber and other “A List” American stars have joined the humanitarian effort, staging concerts as well as public appeals, and donating the proceeds to the relief mission.

On Long Island, and through the assistance of Nassau County Office of Emergency Management Commissioner Craig Craft, 528 cases of Meals Ready To Eat (MRE) were donated to the ABS-CBN Foundation International’s Sagip Kapamilya in Manila for distribution to the stricken areas. Sponsored by PIDCI through the office of its president, Fe Martinez, the packaged meals were transported via RDR Cargo Express. In a related effort, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone has pledged 10 pallets of heater meals and as many pallets of bottled water.

The Philippine-bound packaged meals are currently warehoused, said Ramon Villongco of the Suffolk County Asian American Advisory Board, ready for shipment to Cebu City and nearby areas in which hunger and thirst have worsened the ordeal of the now-homeless calamity victims.

For its part, the medical supplies airlift via UPS is the most recent humanitarian effort in the Philippines spearheaded by the Catholic Medical Mission Board. According to CMMB Senior Vice President for Advancement Adrian Kerrigan and Darnelle Bernier, Director of Business Development Global Health, the CMMB has partnered for decades with private and public Filipino groups in relief missions, including the 2011 medical aid mission for victims of typhoon Sendong (hurricane Washi).