Taiwan is coordinating public and private resources to assist the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan devastated parts of the Southeast Asian country last week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
“Our representative office in Manila conveyed a message of sympathy on behalf of our government and people to the Philippines right after the storm hit on Nov. 8,” ministry spokeswoman Anna Kao (高安) said in an interview.
The government is donating US$200,000 to the post-disaster relief efforts in the Philippines, Kao said.
Photo: CNA
She added that the ministry was coordinating with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and charities to work out how best to help with the relief efforts in the Philippines.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) donated US$10,000 to the Philippine government for disaster relief.
DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) instructed Department of International Affairs Director Liu Shih-chung (劉世忠), who was in Manila for a Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) meeting, to make the donation.
DPP Legislator Hsiao Bikhim (蕭美琴) also donated US$1,000.
In related news, a Taiwanese man who has been teaching at a Chinese-language school in Tacloban, one of the hardest-hit regions, has reported that he is safe.
The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), who has been teaching at the school as alternative military service, was quoted by a school administrator as saying that he had telephoned his family to let them know that he was safe.
Taiwan Root Medical Peace Corps (TRMPC) president Liu Chi-chun (劉啟群) yesterday said that his group would provide free medical services from Thursday through Nov. 21 in the hardest-hit areas of the Philippines.
Liu said volunteers from his group would travel to the storm-battered regions in the central Philippines with assistance from the local Rotary Club and Taiwanese businesspeople operating there.
TRMPC, one of the nation’s best-known medical NGOs, has been offering medical services or emergency humanitarian aid to disadvantaged Filipino citizens annually since 2000, with the exception of 2003, when Taiwan was hit by an outbreak of SARS, Liu said.
He said that the upcoming emergency relief work in the Philippines would not affect the group’s scheduled medical service trip to Haiti from Sunday through Nov. 29.
Volunteers from the corps’ branch in the US will also join the Hati mission, he added.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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