BERN, SWITZERLAND – Swiss and Filipino groups continue to raise funds for the victims of the recent typhoons which devastated large areas of the Philippines. They believe that rehabilitation of the widespread damage is going to be a long-term effort.

The support continued despite the dismay of Filipino groups in Switzerland over emails showing photos of supposedly donated goods from abroad that were allegedly rotting in warehouses of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Last November 7, Ugnayang Bayan sponsored a benefit concert by the Serioso Ma Non Troppo, a youth vocal ensemble from Geneva, and the Maîtrise Children's Choir, a brass and strings ensemble. The young Geneva-based singer Lica de Guzman, who will soon release her first album, also performed. The performers waived their talent fees in favor of the typhoon victims.

“We need to continue the support for the massive relief and rehabilitation efforts needed for the victims of the two typhoons,” said the Ugnayang Bayan, a central body for Filipino groups in the French-speaking cantons of Geneva and Vaud, in its appeal for support of the fundraising.

In Bern, members of the Theresa Lädeli, a support group of Swiss and Filipino nationals for the Philippines, staged its annual auction of old jewelry to raise funds also for victims in Manila and Luzon. The group said half of the proceeds from the auction are for teachers’ salaries in schools that they support in Mindanao.

In the first weeks after tropical storm Ondoy hit the Philippines, the Theresa Lädeli group collected from friends 6,800 Swiss Francs and donated them to the women’s group Gabriela, its partner organization in the Philippines. The group still accepts donations through its GVOM (Groupe Volontaire Outre Mer).

Unused goods?

Meanwhile, Filipinos here were dismayed to receive forwarded emails showing photos of donated emergency items that were reportedly still undistributed in government warehouses.

Marilyn Fernandez, a Filipina who works for the pharmaceutical giant, Roche in Basel, said: “Another (case of) corruption na naman...”

From the TropangImus email list came this message of dismay: “This should not have come as a shock to me anymore, knowing of our government’s disgraceful record of incompetency and corruption, but somehow this story still shocked and bothered me to the core. Someone must answer why these things are happening!”

Divina Villareal-Mitra, meanwhile asked readers to circulate the email with photos, saying that action was needed so that the relief goods would go to the intended recipients.

The Filipinos here said if the story is true, they feared the donated items were being hoarded by unscrupulous politicians who would use the goods in the presidential elections next year.

In an earlier report, DSWD Secretary Esperanza Cabral denied the allegation that the department was hoarding relief goods, and that some were already rotting in their warehouses. Cabral said the government was just practicing judicious use of resources by sending relief goods first to areas that were badly affected by Typhoons Ondoy (Ketsana) and Pepeng (Parma).