CHINA: About 150 Filipinos in Hong Kong gather at a vigil urging the Philippine government to speed up aid delivery to victims of Typhoon Haiyan

Record ID: 872564

  • Title: CHINA: About 150 Filipinos in Hong Kong gather at a vigil urging the Philippine government to speed up aid delivery to victims of Typhoon Haiyan
  • Date: 17th November 2013
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF PEOPLE PUTTING FLOWERS IN FRONT OF PHOTOS OF TYPHOON-AFFECTED AREAS
  • Embargoed: 2nd December 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Hong Kong, China
  • City:
  • Country: Hong Kong
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA9EZLW8Q4IXY2O6YEJLAVCN5WB
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Hong Kong's Philippine community urged Manila to speed up aid delivery to typhoon-affected areas in a prayer vigil on Sunday (November 17), the one day of the week when many of the 150,000 Philippine foreign domestic workers have a day off.
    About 150 people, a majority of them women, prayed and held signs demanding that the government speed up the distribution of aid.
    The super typhoon has killed at least 3,681 people and left 1,186 missing.
    The number of people displaced is estimated by international aid agencies to have risen to four million.
    Organiser of the "Prayer of the People" vigil and secretary general of United Filipinos group, Eman Villanueva, said the group hopes to raise HK$100,000 (US$13,000) in the next few weeks for the disaster zones.
    He also criticised the Philippines government for its slow response.

    "It's an understatement when you say it's slow. When the response, the relief, the response of the government reach the affected areas four or five or six days after the typhoon, it's not just slow. It's a crime, it's a crime against the people," Villanueva said.
    Philippines President Benigno Aquino, caught off guard by the scale of the disaster and criticised by some for the sometimes chaotic response, visited affected areas on Sunday.
    Not for the first time, he sought to deflect blame for the problems onto local authorities whose preparations he said had fallen short.
    But not all Filipinos are convinced.
    Marilyn Barboza, a live-in domestic helper in Hong Kong, cried during the vigil.
    She said she doubted if the government was doing its job.

    "For how many days they don't get, some of them cannot get any relief goods. I don't know if they're doing their jobs," Barboza said.
    Norman Uy Carnay, a programme officer at local charity Mission for Migrant Workers, brought his two-year-old daughter to the vigil.

    "We feel that even though we're outside, we're outside of the country, outside of the Philippines, we still have a stake in the future of our country and what's happening there. So I want Leela to grow up with that kind of value, and for her to be part of this community as young as she could be," he said.
    Mourners lay flowers in front of photographs of typhoon-hit areas and sorted clothes donated for the victims.
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