Typhoon Haiyan: Singapore businesses lend a hand with cash and in kind 

Published on Nov 16, 2013 8:32 AM

This Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013 photograph shows a Singapore Armed Forces C-130 transport plane at the airport in Tacloban where it delivered humanitarian aid and evacuated survivors in Tacloban city, Leyte province, central Philippines. Scores of firms in Singapore are chipping in with donations, airline flights, satellite phones and on-the-ground labour to support victims of Typhoon Haiyan. -- FILE PHOTO: AP

By Mok Fei Fei

Scores of firms in Singapore are chipping in with donations, airline flights, satellite phones and on-the-ground labour to support victims of Typhoon Haiyan.

The Singapore Red Cross said that about 70 corporations and organisations have contacted it to help in fund-raising efforts.

A dozen more have volunteered to help another local aid agency, Mercy Relief, on ways to raise funds.

At financial giant Credit Suisse, for instance, many staff in Singapore and across the Asia Pacific were encouraged to wear jeans to mark a donation drive. The bank has pledged US$400,000 (S$500,000) in donations.

Among the biggest pledges made by a company here so far is by property developer Oxley Holdings. It will match public donations to the Singapore Red Cross dollar for dollar, up to $1 million.

Other banks have also been active in raising funds.

ANZ and HSBC here are asking staff for donations, while beyond staff donations, DBS Bank and OCBC are allowing customers to make donations via their ATMs and websites.

The latest figures from DBS showed its customers have given some $225,000, while OCBC's clients have given around $36,400.

Retailers are also encouraging shoppers to donate.

Isetan Singapore, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and Dairy Farm's outlets including Cold Storage, Giant and Guardian, will put donation cans at their outlets.

Bakery BreadTalk will on Monday launch two buns with all proceeds to be given to victims.

The Singapore Chefs Association is baking 1,000 tubs of chocolate cookies to be sold to sponsors and suppliers to raise funds.

Other firms with a presence in the Philippines are offering help in kind, not just cash.

Budget carrier Tigerair Singapore is sponsoring air tickets to fly the medical and emergency response teams from the Singapore Red Cross to the Philippines.

Sister firm Tigerair Philippines will offer free cargo space to transport relief goods to victims.

SingTel is working with its Philippine associate, Globe Telecom, to provide 150 satellite phones to help people stay connected in areas where networks are down.

Forty staff from CapitaLand's serviced residence unit, The Ascott, have been volunteering daily in the Philippines since Monday to help pack relief goods.

The Philippine Embassy here thanked Singaporeans in a statement: "The tremendous amount of contributions being given is demonstrative of the people of Singapore's generally caring nature."

feimok@sph.com.sgAdditional reporting by Hoe Pei Shan

Typhoon Haiyan: Philippine government defends typhoon response 

Published on Nov 15, 2013 11:23 AM

TACLOBAN, Philippines (AP) - The Philippine government on Friday defended its efforts to deliver assistance to victims of Typhoon Haiyan, many of whom have received little or no assistance since the monster storm struck one week ago.

"In a situation like this, nothing is fast enough," Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said in Tacloban, most of which was destroyed by the storm one week ago.

"The need is massive, the need is immediate, and you can't reach everyone."

Government officials have given different death tolls, both actual and estimated, as a result of the storm.

Given the scale of the disaster, and infrastructure and communications problems, this is not unusual.

The spokesman for the country's civil defense agency, Maj. Reynaldo Balido, confirmed early Friday that the figure had risen to 2,360, hours after the United Nations issued conflicting reports on how many people had died.

On the ground in Tacloban, authorities handed out a situation report stating that 3,422 people had been killed on Samar and Leyte islands, the two most affected areas.

Some officials estimate that the final toll, when the missing are declared dead and remote regions reached, will be more than 10,000.

At least 600,000 people have been displaced.

Authorities are struggling to meet their immediate needs. This often occurs in the aftermath of major disasters, especially in already poor countries where local and national governments lack capacity. It often leads to criticism in some quarters.

The pace of the aid effort has picked up over the last 24 hours, according to reporters who have been in the region for several days. Foreign governments are dispatching food, water, medical supplies and trained staff to the region. Trucks and generators are also arriving.

A US aircraft carrier is moored off the coast, preparing for a major relief mission. The fleet of helicopters on board is expected to drop food and water to the worst affected areas.

Typhoon Haiyan: No roof, water or power, but Tacloban hospital battles on 

Published on Nov 15, 2013 11:41 AM

A typhoon victim checks on her husband as she keeps him alive by manually pumping air into his lungs at the Divine Word hospital, which still operates without electrical power on the seventh day of the Typhoon Haiyan disaster in Tacloban, eastern island of Leyte, on Nov 14, 2013. -- PHOTO: AFPTACLOBAN, Philippines (AFP) - There is no roof, running water or electricity at the Divine Word Hospital in the typhoon-wrecked Philippine city of Tacloban, where three men lie waiting to have their legs amputated.

Doctors, nurses and pharmacists busily rush around patients with horrific injuries, all crammed into a darkened lobby 12 metres by six.

Part of the ceiling has caved in, exposing now-useless electrical wires that dangle harmlessly towards the ground.

"At the height of the typhoon, we were the only hospital left functioning," Valentina Gamba, the director of nursing, told AFP.

"Even now, it's just us and the government hospital operational in Tacloban."

Super Typhoon Haiyan tore the roof off the hospital when it smashed into Tacloban, a once-bustling city of 220,000 people.

The storm surge brought by the most powerful typhoon ever to hit land inundated the ground-floor of the 200-bed facility, destroying the magnetic resonance imaging machine, ultrasound and X-ray, as well as the emergency room and laboratory facilities.

"We acquired the MRI for 65 million pesos (S$1.85 million) six months ago. It has not yet been fully paid for," said Gamba.

"We lost nine patients during the typhoon, when a power cut affected those who were on life support."

Reinforcements have arrived in the seven days since the typhoon, with relief doctors from the southern Philippines being joined by volunteer medics from Israel, Japan and South Korea.

The additional staffing meant they could open a surgery ward on the second floor.

"These three are scheduled for amputations," she said, pointing to two men lying on benches and a third on a gurney. All three were hooked up to intravenous drips.

One had an open fracture on his right leg, and the two others had large, open leg wounds.

About two dozen walk-in patients were also crammed into the room, including children, crying as they were given injections.

Nearby, pharmacists sorted donated medicines into small boxes for distribution to people who needed them, while a doctor injected a woman in a darkened corridor where intravenous drips were stacked and the floor was covered with used boxes.

Hospital security man Rogelio Sabugo, 39, stood guard, unarmed and wearing shorts, a camouflage jacket and slippers.

"My house was ruined and I left my wife and two kids under a table that now serves as our temporary home," he said. He reported for work as normal on Saturday, the day after the apocalyptic storm barrelled through.

Outside, an elderly Catholic nun of the Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing, which runs the hospital, directed six boys in a clean-up of the driveway, shovelling away the mud and debris that the sea had brought ashore.

"The hospital was hit with 10-foot storm surges, it is very depressing," said Sister Eloisa David.

David had worked at the hospital from 1990 to 2007, and was on the relatively untouched island of Bohol, around 150 kilometres from Tacloban, when the storm came.

When she heard about what had happened to the hospital, she rushed to help.

"There is no electricity, there is no water. We bring in water in a truck," she told AFP.

Sam Bajeo, a government doctor from Davao Regional Hospital in the country's south, wore basketball shorts, a singlet and slippers as he examined one patient.

With the situation so dire, the normal rules of hospital etiquette and division of labour have gone out of the window.

"I helped clean up the operating room upstairs, so I got wet," he said.

Typhoon Haiyan: UN says death toll 4,460, but Philippine government says 2,360 

Published on Nov 15, 2013 12:19 PM

The United Nations said on Nov 15, 2013, that the death toll from a super typhoon in the Philippines was at least 4,460, citing regional officials, but the national disaster council maintained a much lower figure. -- PHOTO: ST FILE PHOTO: KEVIN LIM  

MANILA (AFP) - The United Nations said on Friday the death toll from a super typhoon in the Philippines was at least 4,460, citing regional officials, but the national disaster council maintained a much lower figure.

The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the number of 4,460 was given from the regional taskforce of the Philippines' National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council on Wednesday.

But NDRMMC's spokesman Reynaldo Balido insisted the official toll from the typhoon that ripped through the central Philippines on November 8 remained at 2,360.

"As of 13 November, the government reported that 4,460 people have died," an OCHA statement said.

Asked for the source of the figures, Manila-based OCHA spokeswoman Orla Fagan said:" We are getting it from the operations centre of the regional taskforce set up by the NDRMMC." When asked about the UN's statement: Balido replied: "Not true". Then repeated the NDRMMC's published figure of 2,360.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino said on Tuesday that he estimated the final death toll would be around 2,500.

Typhoon Haiyan: Philippines struggles to identify the bodies 

Published on Nov 15, 2013 12:32 PM

TACLOBAN, Philippines (AFP) - A week after one of the strongest typhoons ever tore through the Philippines, bodies still lie where they fell or were washed up, the defining motif of a tragedy that has killed thousands.

The stench of bloated and discoloured human flesh decomposing under the tropical sun hangs everywhere in the central city of Tacloban, where wretched survivors and rescue workers cover their mouths to keep the cloying smell from their throats.

Hundreds have been collected, put into body bags and trucked off to wrecked municipal buildings to await burial in mass graves, a process that city authorities began on Thursday.

Officials and aid volunteers say those bodies that have been recovered are just the beginning, a small fraction of those that could be seen when the storm surge subsided. Many more, they say, lie under the mountains of debris.

"Leaving them (the bodies) just decaying on the roadside, uncollected, is next to unforgivable," local Catholic priest Amadeo Alvero said.

Officials initially said picking up the bodies had to take second place to the effort to help those still living, many in utter destitution, their homes swept away and with precious little food or clean drinking water.

But they also conceded they had simply been overwhelmed by the number of dead, and had temporarily run out of body bags.

Echoing a fear expressed by many, Alvero said the dead could be the source of contagious disease.

"The government needs to act fast because this could also become a health issue," he said.

Health Secretary Enrique Ona insisted the bodies did not pose a serious risk. Experts point out that a corpse can only carry a disease such as cholera if the disease was present before the person died.

"We have to assure our countrymen that... there will not be an epidemic," he said. "The one thing we want is to identify them so we can give some peace to their relatives." Identification is not always easy, for instance when whole families have died, leaving no-one around to ask.

Teams have been dispatched to Tacloban from the Justice Department's investigating arm and the national police's crime laboratory.

They know they will not identify every body they find straight away, but hope to collect enough evidence to allow that to be done later.

"On the scene, our doctors begin the documentation," said Chief Superintendent Liza Sabong, head of the national police crime laboratory and part of the contingent sent to Tacloban.

"We tag them as male or female, they photograph them, list the belongings on the cadaver itself. We do fingerprinting. We measure the body and then they are placed in cadaver bags." This "processing" will allow any surviving relatives at a later date to identify the body, possibly through its clothes or appearance, she told AFP.

But the sheer scale of the task is overwhelming.

Only 13 of the 182 bodies collected by Sabong's group have been picked up by their relatives, she said. The rest have been left behind.

Tacloban on Thursday began mass burials of some of those bodies that had been bagged and laid out by the shattered city hall.

The plan, said mayor Alfred Romualdez, was that all those whose name and family were known would be placed into one huge pit. The unidentified rest would go into a separate mass grave.

Romualdez, who has been an outspoken critic of the rescue effort, said he believes three-quarters of all bodies collected had still not been claimed by family. In these circumstances, mass burials were the only option.

"Let's get the bodies out of the streets," he said. "They are creating an atmosphere of fear and depression." The head of the Justice Department's forensics division, Wilfredo Tierra, said the collective burial was only intended as a stop-gap measure.

"They will be buried temporarily in a shallow, mass grave and when everything has settled down and the peace and order situation is not an issue anymore, then we will proceed with the proper disaster victim identification," he told AFP.

Typhoon Haiyan: Japan triples aid package to over $37 million 

Published on Nov 15, 2013 1:35 PM

Japan Self Defence Force medical personnel Major Watanabe (right) arrives to survey the damage near the city hall, after super typhoon Haiyan battered Tacloban City in central Philippines, on Nov 15, 2013. Japan said it was tripling its emergency aid package for the typhoon-ravaged Philippines to more than $37 billion as Tokyo prepares to send as many as 1,000 troops to help with relief effors.-- PHOTO: REUTERSTOKYO (AFP) - Japan said Friday it was tripling its emergency aid package for the typhoon-ravaged Philippines to more than US$30 million (S$37 million), as Tokyo prepares to send as many as 1,000 troops to help with relief efforts.

The foreign ministry said it would now give $37 million in emergency grant aid to the disaster-struck nation, up from a previous $12 million. Another $2.5 million worth of emergency relief goods and assistance is being delivered through Japanese non-governmental organisations.

Tokyo said the total package would reach about $65 million including a $25 million contribution to its poverty reduction fund at the Manila-based Asian Development Bank.

The major contribution to the Philippines from Asia's second-biggest economy has drawn comparisons to the relatively little coming from China, which is now the region's largest economy and which is embroiled in territorial disputes with Manila.

China said Thursday it would provide a further US$1.6 million aid to the Philippines, mainly in tents and blankets, after widespread criticism of its initial modest response of a US$100,000 government donation, matched by the Chinese Red Cross.

On Wednesday, Japan said it was readying to send as many as 1,000 members of its Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to the Philippines in what is believed to be the largest single relief operation team ever sent abroad by Japan's de facto military.

It is expected to be the first time that Japanese troops are active in Leyte - which was pummelled by Super Typhoon Haiyan - since the Philippine island turned into one of the biggest battlegrounds of World War II, when US forces counter-invaded in 1944.

Previous overseas missions by the SDF, which adheres to the country's post-war pacifist constitution, have usually numbered in the hundreds.

On Tuesday, Japan dispatched 50 SDF members to assist in medical support and transport operations, and Tokyo says the final deployment will depend on what the Philippines says it needs.

The defence forces have helped in previous regional relief efforts including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Typhoon Haiyan: Philippine government overwhelmed by increasing number of bodies 

Published on Nov 15, 2013 1:41 PM

Members of Germany's NGO organisation International Search And Rescue (ISAR-Germany) carry a patient injured in a motorcycle crash on a stretcher into their makeshift hospital in the yard of the Metropolitan Cathedral of the archdiocese of Palo, some 15km away from Tacloban on Friday, Nov 15, 2013. More bodies are turning up from the rubbles of Tacloban, overwhelming the Philippine government's efforts to dispose of them one week after Typhoon Haiyan decimated the city. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

By Raul Dancel In Tacloban (Philippines) More bodies are turning up from the rubbles of Tacloban, overwhelming the Philippine government's efforts to dispose of them one week after Typhoon Haiyan decimated the city.

In a news conference on Friday, Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez said he had asked the national government to send more soldiers to pick up bodies being lined up along the main highway from the airport.

"We do not have the manpower anymore to pick them up, and I have appealed to the national government to help," he told reporters.

He disclosed that there were 801 "confirmed deaths" as of noon on Friday.

Asked to comment on President Benigno Aquino's statement that the death toll might actually be 2,500 rather than 10,000 previously reported, he said this lower figure was also an "estimate".

He said he wished the number would be that low, but commented that "the figure is changing by the hour".

The Tacloban city government has set up temporary mass graves at a cemetery in Vasper village.

"Later, the bodies will be placed in a suitable place," Mr Romualdez said.

On Thursday, 105 bodies were buried at one of the mass graves. Another group is scheduled for mass burial on Friday, said Mr Romualdez.

Assistant Press Secretary Ricky Carandang told The Straits Times: "The challenge is disposing of the bodies quickly, hygienically, while allowing the families to pay their respects".

rdancel@sph.com.sg

Typhoon Haiyan to drag Philippine growth below 7 per cent 

Published on Nov 15, 2013 1:56 PM

Residents pick water damaged shoes in Tacloban, eastern island of Leyte, on Nov 12, 2013. The Philippine government says damage caused by Typhoon Haiyan may reduce economic growth this year to less than 7 per cent. -- PHOTO: AFPMANILA (AP) - The Philippine government says damage caused by Typhoon Haiyan may reduce economic growth this year to less than 7 per cent.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Mr Arsenio Balisacan said the government forecasts growth of between 6.5 per cent and 7 per cent, down from its previous estimate of 7.3 per cent.

He says the economic aftermath of the typhoon, which killed more than 2,300 people in the eastern Philippines, may linger into next year. It caused widespread damage to agriculture in the worst hit areas.

Balisacan says fourth quarter growth will slow to 4.1 per cent from 7.1 per cent last year.

The Philippines had become one of the fastest growing countries in Asia under policies to clean up corruption and alleviate poverty.

Balisacan said rehabilitation of infrastructure such as roads, power networks and irrigation must be accelerated.

Typhoon Haiyan: Marabut town feels forgotten as aid passes by 

Published on Nov 15, 2013 2:39 PM

Children run towards a US military aircraft as it arrives to distribute aid to Typhoon Haiyan survivors in the destroyed town of Guiuan, Philippines on Thursday, Nov 14, 2013. Though aid has started to arrive in Guiuan, in the nearby town of Marabut residents complained that aid has been far too slow to come. -- PHOTO: AP

MARABUT, Philippines (AP) - Helicopters crisscross the skies constantly above this typhoon-wrecked Filipino town. In the ruins below, hungry residents look up anxiously every time they pass.

The choppers have yet to drop off any aid, and the desperate residents of Marabut are starting to wonder if they ever will.

"We feel totally forgotten," local government official Mildred Labado said, staring across the ruins of her once-picturesque town.

Medical supplies are so short here that the injured are covering their wounds with masking tape instead of gauze. Women are using shattered wooden planks of homes for cooking fires.

"Help me!" some children in Marabut shouted to a journalist. "Put me on Facebook!" "People are still in a state of shock," Ms Labado said.

Marabut is across San Pedro and San Pablo Bay from Tacloban, the eastern Philippine city where Typhoon Haiyan wreaked its most gruesome destruction last week, killing hundreds of people. The storm reduced both Marabut and Tacloban to grim junkyards of rubble, but here the death toll was much lower.

Mayor Percival Ortillo Jr. said every one of Marabut's 15,946 homes was destroyed in the typhoon, and more than 2,000 people were injured, but only 20 people are confirmed dead and eight others are missing. He said the death toll was relatively low because most people managed to take refuge in concrete buildings - the only structures standing amid a sea of wooden debris - and five caves set high in hills.

The United Nations says the storm affected 11 million people in all, more than 670,000 of whom lost their homes. The enormity of the task of helping them all has pressed the resources of the Philippines hard.

Survivors in all the worst-hit areas have complained that aid has been far too slow to come. On Thursday morning for the first time, pallets of international aid lined the grass runway at Tacloban. In Guiuan, another blown-out city east of Marabut, U.S. Osprey helicopters dropped off French medics and boxes of American food aid in a soccer field. But far less aid has come to Marabut, a four-hour drive from Guiuan, the closest town.

Typhoon Haiyan: Filipinos abroad seek news, rally aid 

Published on Nov 15, 2013 4:34 PM

Filipino staff members pack boxes of donations from overseas workers at an express company in a Hong Kong shopping mall as the relief goods will be shipped to the survivors of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines on Wednesday, Nov 13, 2013. They gather in California churches, in Hong Kong shopping malls, at prayer vigils in Bahrain and on hastily launched Facebook pages. Philippine overseas workers, cut off from home after a super-typhoon killed thousands, are coming together to pray, swap information and launch aid drives. -- PHOTO: AP

HONG KONG (AP) - They gather in California churches, in Hong Kong shopping malls, at prayer vigils in Bahrain and on hastily launched Facebook pages. Philippine overseas workers, cut off from home after a super-typhoon killed thousands, are coming together to pray, swap information and launch aid drives.

Above all, many of the more than 10.5 million Filipinos abroad - some 10 per cent of the country's population - are desperately dialing phone numbers that don't answer in the typhoon zone, where aid is still only slowly trickling in and communications have been largely blown away.

"I call again, and I keep trying and trying and trying but no one answered," said Ms Princess Howard, a worker at a money transfer business in Hong Kong, of her attempts to reach her 62-year-old grandfather and nine other relatives in the Leyte region that was flattened when Typhoon Haiyan hit one week ago.

Sending $21.4 billion back home last year alone, Filipino overseas workers are a major part of their country's economy, with their remittances equaling nearly 10 per cent of gross domestic product. Spread out over more than 200 countries, they work as nurses in Europe, sugar cane laborers in Malaysia, housemaids in Hong Kong and construction workers in the oil-rich Middle East.

Hong Kong alone has some 133,000 Filipinos, mostly domestic workers who tend to gather in local parks on Sundays, a day off. There are so many Filipinos in Hong Kong, that an entire shopping mall catering to them has developed - to buy goods from home and, crucially, wire money back to families.

"If only I had magic, in one click I would be there," said 30-year-old Mr Jeff Ilagan, an assistant pastor at the Filipino Disciples Christian Church in Los Angeles, California, who is from Leyte and whose wife and three young children are still in their village. As the storm hit, he endured a sleepless night worrying after receiving a text message from his wife saying, "Pray for us."

In a display of unity in Bahrain, local Shiite Muslims joined the Filipino workers' community in a candlelight vigil Tuesday. A 48-year-old domestic worker, Ms Maria Lisa Bartolome, one of about 50,000 Filipino workers in the Gulf state, said she joined another vigil at the main Catholic church in the capital Manama. Bartolome's family lives in Manila and rode out the typhoon, but she has not heard from relatives in Cebu.

"We are praying not to have another typhoon," she said.

Victims of Haiyan: For Filipinos, a football will always be a basketball 

Published on Nov 15, 2013 5:17 PM

-- ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

By Raul Dancel In Tacloban (Philippines) Children passing the time inside an evacuation centre in Tacloban on Nov 15, 2013, by playing basketball with a football handed to them by relief workers.Thousands of families in Tacloban were housed in evacuation centres that were inundated when a storm surge rolled through coastal areas in the city when Typhoon Haiyan struck on Nov 8.

rdancel@sph.com.sg

Victims of Haiyan: Man with the winning bird 

Published on Nov 15, 2013 5:38 PM

Mr Oliver Gilos, 23, a fish vendor in Tacloban, prepared himself to give up on his prize-winning rooster when Typhoon Haiyan struck central Philippines on Nov 8.

He was was sheltering in an evacuation centre when a storm surge swept up. "The water came in and rose in a matter of minutes," he told The Straits Times.

He panicked and began to climb up to the roof of a stadium inside the evacuation centre. That's when he had to make the hard choice to let go of the bird because he needed both his hands to climb.

He untied his rooster and let him go, consigning him to fate.

The rooster had other plans.

When the water subsided, Mr Gilos found his rooster still alive and kicking.

Luck has always been on his rooster's side, he says. Before Haiyan, it had won two cockfighting matches.

rdancel@sph.com.sg

Victims of Haiyan: Saved by a hole 

Published on Nov 15, 2013 5:56 PM

Mr Larry Albellar, 66, frantically saved himself when the typhoon came, and returned to find the car already wedged between his and his neighbour's home in Tacloban city. -- ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

By Raul Dancel In Tacloban (Philippines) Mr Larry Albellar, 66, was trapped inside his house when the storm surge rolled through Tacloban.

Water rose all the way to the ceiling in a matter of minutes, he recalled.

Mr Albellar was certain he would have drowned had the strong winds not peeled off a galvanised steel sheet off the ceiling, opening up a route to escape.

He swam through the hole and managed to climb out of it and perched himself on a neighbour's roof, where he rode out the typhoon.

His son's car, however, was not as lucky. The water swept it up and wedged it onto a wall, where it now sits with its bonnet pointed straight down at the ground.

rdancel@sph.com.sg

Victims of Haiyan: A tearful reunion 

Published on Nov 15, 2013 6:02 PM

Plane mechanic Rodrigo Cabanero, who flew all the way from Abu Dhabi to Tacloban to get his family out, reunites with his teary mother on his return on Nov 14, 2013. -- ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

By Raul Dancel In Tacloban (Philippines) Mr Rodrigo Cabanero was thousands of kilometres from his family in Tacloban when the typhoon hit.

For days, Mr Rodrigo, a plane mechanic working in Abu Dhabi, didn't hear anything from them. His anxiety surged, and he headed home.

On Thursday, he finally managed to board a flight to Cebu and from there to Tacloban.

When he finally reached his home, his tearful mum raced out of the gate and, with tears in her eyes, embraced him like she would never let go.

His daughter kissed his hand, a sign of respect among Muslims, and they capped a happy ending with a hug.

rdancel@sph.com.sg

Typhoon Haiyan: $89.8 million sent to UN fund 

Published on Nov 16, 2013 6:41 AM

Typhoon Haiyan survivors walk amid ruins of buildings in Maraboth, Philippines, on Nov 14, 2013. The United Nations (UN) has received US$72 million (S$89.8 million) for its relief fund for the disaster-stricken Philippines with Gulf countries the key contributors, a top UN humanitarian official said Friday. -- FILE PHOTO: AP

UNITED NATIONS, United States (AFP) - The United Nations (UN) has received US$72 million (S$89.8 million) for its relief fund for the disaster-stricken Philippines with Gulf countries the key contributors, a top UN humanitarian official said Friday.

Kuwait and United Arab Emirates have each given US$10 million to the UN appeal for US$301 million to help survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, Mr John Ging, the UN humanitarian operations director told a news conference.

Mr Ging added that more than US$80 million has been donated to the Philippines relief effort through other international charities and organisations.

"Money is coming very quickly," Mr Ging told reporters, while adding: "We have to keep our foot on the accelerator. Too many people have not received assistance but they should know the assistance is on the way."

According to a latest Philippine government toll, 3,620 people have been confirmed as killed by the typhoon. "But we all know that figure is going to rise," Mr Ging said.

The UN said on Thursday, quoting government figures, that about 4,600 people had been killed. The UN would stop giving toll estimates because the figures were becoming "confusing," Ging said.

The UN still says that 13 million people have been affected by the typhoon with 1.9 million people displaced and 287,000 homes serious damaged or destroyed.

UN officials say the priority in the stricken areas must now be to restore drinking water and health facilities in the worst hit areas, particularly the devastated town of Tacloban.

Typhoon Haiyan: Journey donates $435,000 in relief 

Published on Nov 16, 2013 10:01 AM

NEW YORK (AP) - Journey is donating $350,000 to help relief efforts in the Philippines, and its lead singer has a message for his homeland: "Don't Stop Believin'."

Mr Arnel Pineda and the rest of the band announced the donation on Friday. It will go to the United Nations World Food Programme, which is providing Filipinos with food assistance. The donation should provide 1.4 million meals.

In a statement, Mr Pineda referenced the group's famous "Believin"' song and said "help is on the way."

Journey made the donation along with Live Nation Entertainment, Creative Artists Agency and their manager, John Baruck.

The Philippines were devastated by Typhoon Haiyan, which has left more than 3,600 dead and displaced 600,000, according to authorities. Journey is also calling on fans to donate to the cause.

Typhoon Haiyan: Battered church offers shelter from the storm 

Published on Nov 16, 2013 10:17 AM

Men pray inside the damaged Santo Nino church in typhoon hit Tacloban city, Leyte province, central Philippines on Wednesday, Nov 13, 2013. Santo Nino church stands battered but tall in the ruins of its typhoon-shattered parish, a 124-year-old beacon of physical and spiritual sanctuary for a devout, traumatised community. -- PHOTO: AP 

TACLOBAN (AFP) - Santo Nino church stands battered but tall in the ruins of its typhoon-shattered parish, a 124-year-old beacon of physical and spiritual sanctuary for a devout, traumatised community.

At the height of the super typhoon that laid the Philippine city of Tacloban to waste last week, 250 men, women and children were sheltering inside the walls of the Catholic church.

As the storm waters rose, Father Oliver Mazo, 37, said he led them to the cramped living quarters on the second floor. "I blessed the room and we all huddled together," Mazo told AFP. "The wind was devastating, really terrible and we could hear trees falling and crashing against the walls. There was a lot of screaming," he recalled.

"Fortunately, all those who were here were saved, and I believe what saved us is our prayer," he added.

The Philippines is the Roman Catholic Church's most important outpost in Asia, with Catholics making up nearly 80 per cent of the country's 100 million people.

In the aftermath of the storm that destroyed their homes, shattered their livelihoods, and left thousands dead, many in Tacloban have looked to the Church for solace.

As sunlight poured through the gaping holes of the storm-punctured roof, men and women laboured to clear the mud and debris strewn across the floor of the church.

They worked around parishioners kneeling and saying the rosary, praying for the souls of those who died and giving thanks for those who survived.

Father Mazo acknowledged that for some, the destruction wrought by the typhoon posed an enormous test of their faith. "I tell people not to despair, because there is a reason this happened," he said. "We don't question the will of God and it does not mean that those who perished were sinners, but it was simply their time," he said.

Although most of the roof covering was ripped off by the 315 kilometre an hour winds that whipped across the central Philippines, the timbered lattice on which it rested remained largely in palace, casting a grid-like shadow onto the muddied, marble floor below.

The elevated altar and painted wall shrines were almost untouched, and their bright colours gleamed in the sunlight as the volunteers swept, mopped and cleared the debris. Santo Nino has been the focus of the parish's close-knit Catholic community for generations.

"I have been coming here everyday since I was little," said Lucrecia Cinco, 75. "Do I still believe in God? Yes. But I am left wondering why this has to happen to the good people here," she said.

Floods kill 5 and leave 4 missing in Vietnam 

Published on Nov 16, 2013 11:02 AM

HANOI (AP) - Disaster officials and state media say floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains have killed five people and forced 70,000 from their homes in central Vietnam.

Officials in Quang Ngai province said Saturday that the floods have forced 64,500 people from their homes in the province, where two people died. They say the military and police are rushing aid and food to people in many villages cut off by the flood waters.

Another 4,500 people were evacuated from their homes in the neighboring province of Quang Nam.

State media reported that three people were killed by flooding in two other central provinces.

Typhoon Haiyan: British man and family missing 

Published on Nov 16, 2013 6:34 AM

LONDON (AFP) - The Foreign Office said on Friday it was urgently looking into reports that a British man and his family may have been killed by Typhoon Haiyan while visiting the Philippines.

Mr Colin Bembridge, a 61-year-old pharmacist from the north-east of England, his Filipino partner Maybelle, 35, and their three-year-old daughter Victoria have not been seen since the typhoon struck, Channel Four News reported.

They were visiting Maybelle's relatives and had hired a beach house in the coastal village of Baybay close to Tacloban.

But the house was destroyed, leaving only wreckage, including a games console belonging to the little girl.

"I just want to know whether they are dead or whether they were blown by the winds," Maybelle's mother Lydia Go, 79, told the broadcaster.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are aware of reports that a British national was killed by Typhoon Haiyan. We are urgently looking into these reports."

The Philippines raised its official death toll from the super typhoon to 3,621 on Friday, but this is below a United Nations count of at least 4,460.