26 November 2013 - Philippine Ambassador to Singapore Minda Calaguian Cruz, last Friday, November 22, witnessed the send-off ceremony of 950 boxes of relief goods bound for the victims of typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines.

The goods, consisting of, dried food, toiletries and bottled water, were contributed by members of the Marsiling community at the initiative of Mr. Hawaza Daipi, Member of the Singapore Parliament and Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Manpower.

Marsiling is part of Mr. Daipi’s constituency in the Sembawang area of Singapore. Mr. Daipi, a member of the ruling People’s Action Party, has been a member of the Singapore Parliament since 1996.

The ceremony, held at Fuchun Community Center, was witnessed by officials of the Marsiling Citizen’s Consultative Committee and officials of Air Asia Singapore, which will ship the items to the Philippines.

Mr. Daipi stated that it was his community’s humble response to the disaster in the Philippines which people read in print and watched in broadcast media.

He noted that Singapore, as a fellow ASEAN country, shares the understands the challenge faced by the victims of the typhoon.

In her statement during the ceremony, which was covered by the Singapore media, Ambassador Calaguian-Cruz thanked Mr. Daipi and the representatives of the community adding that the response from Singapore has been very overwhelming with people from all walks of life coming forward with offer to help. She noted that thanks largely to assistance from the international community, accessibility to relief goods among the survivors has improved considerably over the past few days.

She pointed out that the Philippines recognizes that the road to recovery is long and need to be sustained and that it is during these times of tragedy that the humanity of people will manifest as demonstrated by members of the community in Marsiling.

These gestures of generosity, the Ambassador said, will help bring about hope among the survivors in their desire to bring back normalcy to their lives.  END