02 January 2014 – Philippine Ambassador to Germany Maria Cleofe R. Natividad received the cash donations collected by the Royal Thai Embassy for the Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) victims amounting to 10,850.00 euros in a simple turn-over ceremony from the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Thailand to Germany, H.E. Madame Nongnuth Phetcharatana.
The cash donation comes from the individual contributions of the Royal Thai Embassy’s officers and staff, and those of its attached agencies like the Military Attaché, Trade and Investment, and Labor sections. The Thai Consulate General in Frankfurt, the Thai honorary posts in Munich, Stuttgart, Essen and Hamburg, and the Thai community in Germany, also contributed their shares to the donation.
“We went through a similar situation in 2004, when a tsunami hit us, and we know the great challenges faced by a government to rehabilitate and reconstruct the areas affected by a natural catastrophe, such as the typhoon that hit your country last month,” Ambassador Phetcharatana said.
In presenting the donation to Ambassador Natividad, the Thai Ambassador expressed her country’s sympathies for the victims of Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan), and underlined Thailand’s unflinching solidarity with the Philippines.
For and in behalf of the Republic of the Philippines, Ambassador Natividad received the cash donation and thanked Ambassador Phetcharatana for the generosity of the officers and employees of the Royal Thai Embassy in Berlin, its associated offices in other cities of Germany, and the Thai community in Germany. “We are deeply touched by your gesture, and I wish to express our sincerest gratitude to the Government and People of the Kingdom of Thailand for your sympathy and readiness to support us after we experienced a typhoon of unheard destructive magnitude.”
Ambassador Natividad underlined the ASEAN spirit of cooperation and community that Thailand so concretely demonstrated by way of its cash donation. She requested her Thai counterpart to convey her profound personal thanks to all the donors, both Thais and their German friends, who contributed to the donation.
The donation by the Royal Thai Embassy of 10,850 euros is the single largest cash donation ever received directly by the Philippine Embassy from another Embassy in Berlin.
Minister Mardomel Celo D. Melicor and Finance Officer Ms. Generosa B. Balocating accompanied Ambassador Natividad to witness the turn-over and issue the corresponding official receipt for the donation.
The Embassy remits all donations received within the week to the prescribed accounts of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council and the Philippine Red Cross in Manila. The Thai Embassy donation was effectively transferred to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila upon issuance of the receipt. END