PB Fund Aids Quake Victims
Episcopal News Service. August 25, 1976 [76287]
NEW YORK -- The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church has sent $10,000 in emergency relief aid to the Diocese of the Southern Philippines to assist victims of the earthquakes and tidal wave that swept the southern part of the archipelago August 17.
Acting under his interim grant authority, the Rt. Rev. John M. Allin made the grant from the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief in response to a request from the Diocesan Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Constancio Manguramas.
Since the government of the Philippines has made it clear that it will be responsible for relief operations -- as in the case of China, there has been no worldwide appeal -- the money sent from the Presiding Bishop's Fund will probably be used to assist immediate Church needs.
Shortly after the grant was authorized, the Episcopal Church Center received a letter from Bishop Manguramas which he had written the day after the disaster. In it, the Bishop noted that a girl's dormitory in Upi was crumbling and would have to be demolished, leaving the church with the problem of housing the displaced girls. He also said that Brent Hospital and parish properties in Zamboanga -- to which a number of victims were taken -- were damaged and filled to overflow and that the hospital could not cope with the need for medicine and medical supplies.
In addition to the response from the Presiding Bishop's Fund, the staff officer for Asiamerican Ministries, the Rev. Winston Ching, has sent a message throughout the Episcopal Asiamerican Strategies Task Force (EAST) network appraising them of the situation.