A Republic of China (ROC) Navy vessel departed from Zuoying Naval Base yesterday to deliver relief supplies to the typhoon-ravaged Philippines.
It is due to arrive late on Thursday or early on Friday.
Manila Economic and Cultural Office Director Antonio Basilio said at a ceremony marking the shipment of relief supplies that his government and countrymen were very grateful for Taiwan’s assistance in Manila’s post-disaster relief and reconstruction efforts.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
The ship is delivering 552 tonnes of relief supplies and equipment, including canned fish, excavation machinery and prefabricated houses, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Shih (石定) said at the ceremony.
Among the items being shipped are 80 prefabricated houses donated by the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation, which will be used to set up a “Taiwan village” in the disaster zone, Shih said, adding that the charity is expected to donate more prefabricated houses later.
The ship is being escorted on its 900 nautical mile (1,167km) voyage by the Lafayette-class Kangting frigate.
Having a warship escort a tank-landing craft on a cargo delivery mission is standard practice in the navy, but naval authorities said the frigate will not enter Cebu port when the Chung He docks to unload relief supplies.
The ROC Navy made frequent port calls in the Philippines before the two countries severed diplomatic ties in 1975. Military servicemen of the two countries resumed contacts in the 1990s, and an ROC Fleet of Friendship last made a port call at Subic Bay in November 2003.
Yesterday’s shipment followed the airlifting of more than 150 tonnes of relief goods to the Philippines via C-130 cargo planes over the past week in response to the devastation by Typhoon Haiyan on Nov. 8.
Meanwhile, Greater Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) yesterday said that he and department heads of the Taichung City Government had donated a day’s pay, totaling about NT$133,000, to support disaster relief efforts.
The city government’s Bureau of Labor Affairs has also launched a campaign to collect relief goods, including summer clothing, cool summer blankets and cooking utensils, for delivery to typhoon-battered zones in the Philippines, Hu said.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
RSS