The Chinese Consul General who led the distribution of relief goods in Digos City went back to this province to hand over his country’s assistance to earthquake victims in 3 towns.

Consul General Li Lin, together with his staff and some members of Chinese volunteer groups, went to Barangay Dolo in Bansalan, Davao del Sur to personally hand over packs of relief goods to earthquake victims who are still living in makeshift tents inside the evacuation area.

Some of the 1,700 families are still staying in evacuation areas which are dependent on relief assistance from civic, non-government organizations, and local government units that are sending food packs every now and then.

Dolo Barangay Captain Erlinda de la Cerna said the DSWD has provided 12 family size tents in the area.

The majority of the evacuees are staying within the perimeter of their respective houses.

“We wanted to let them know that we are ready to face the challenge of giving relief assistance although we are inside the danger zone,” Lin said.

Lin also said in a span of two days, they were able to deliver at least 8,000 food packs.

Lin said the money used to purchase the food packs came from four Chinese companies channeled to the Consulate Office in Davao City.

Lin was joined by Dumper Party-list Rep. Claudine Diane Bautista and Kiblawan Town Mayor Jason Rama who also brought food packs for the victims.

Bautista and Rama are children of Davao Occidental Governor Claude Bautista.

The Chinese community in Davao City sent tankers loaded with potable water to augment the water supply from the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) and local volunteer groups who responded to the call to provide drinking and bathing water since most of their spring and wells are no longer fit for human use as it turned murky after the quake.

In this town, Mayor Arthur Davin accompanied the group to Barangay Balnate where two evacuation camps were established to house 453 families from seven sub-sitios that were badly hit by the quake.

Matanao Mayor Vincent Fernandez led Lin to the evacuation camp at Lower Marber in Matanao town where hundreds of people were also displaced by the series of temblors that hit the province in October.

Lin said building officials must be very critical to those who wanted to build structures in this part of the country knowing that it is littered with active faults.

“If the standards in the building codes in the Philippines are being religiously followed chances are you can be resilient to many types of calamities including earthquakes,” Consul Lin said. (PNA)