What happened to US relief goods?
RED CROSS DISTRIBUTED THEM, NOT RDCC – CUEVAS

ILOILO City – The relief goods brought by the US Navy for typhoon victims in Panay Island were coursed through the Philippine National Red Cross and not the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council (RDCC), said Chief. Supt. Isagani Cuevas, director of the Police Regional Office 6.

Cuevas, also the RDCC chairman, was reacting to reports that the relief goods given by the United States government have not been distributed to the typhoon victims.

According to Cuevas, what the US soldiers primarily distributed typhoon victims were from the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), but that the Americans also brought with them some of their own relief goods.

But these American relief goods – from the USAID or the United States Agency for International Development – were coursed through the Red Cross, he stressed over Reklamo Publiko public affairs talk show yesterday.

Why Red Cross?

Cuevas said the USAID picked the Red Cross as its conduit.

The Red Cross also had its own “needs assessment” and distributed relief goods based on this assessment, Cuevas explained.

Cuevas lauded Red Cross for their relief operations.

Before the relief distribution, he said a USAID representative asked him about the performance of the Red Cross here. He said he told the representative that “the Red Cross has a very good track record in the distribution of relief goods.”

Regarding the NDCC relief goods that the US troops helped distribute to the different parts of Panay, Cuevas said these were first delivered here from Manila through a C130 plane of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

From the Iloilo airport, US Navy helicopters of the USS Reagan aircraft carrier flew these goods to various parts of Panay, especially those areas that became inaccessible due to the typhoon’s devastation.

According to Cuevas, it was the Department of Social Welfare and Development here that received the goods from the NDCC and, based on its and the RDCC’s needs assessment, identified areas where these relief goods were distributed.

Cuevas also stressed that the distributed goods were properly receipted./PN