GORDON OFFERS PNRC ASSISTANCE TO CHINA

The Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) has offered to help China in the rescue and in extracting people buried under the debris after powerful earthquake struck last Monday, its chairman, Senator Richard Gordon said.

Gordon, in his letter to Chinese Ambassador to Manila Song Tao, said "the PNRC offers to send China a rescue truck complete with the equipment capable of extracting people buried under debris, as well as doctors, nurses and other emergency personnel,"

"We can only hope that our offer of assistance may help to ease the suffering and pain of your people "We are truly believe in the universal brotherhood of men, the need to respond to the needs of others in distress is truly imperative," Gordon said.

Gordon also informed the Ambassador in a phone call that PNRC Governor James Dy is organizing a team of Chinese speaking doctors and nurses that will lend their expertise in medical emergency as with Governor George Go for trained volunteer firefighter-rescuers.

The senator likewise filed the resolution expressing sympathy to the People's Republic of China on the devastating earthquake that struck the city of Chedun, province of Sichuan last Monday.

"The Filipinos people are extending their deepest condolences and sympathy to the Chinese people over the massive deaths, suffering and destruction in the wake of the devastating earthquake that hit the Chinese mainland," said Gordon.

Gordon, a member of the Board of Governors of the International Federation of Red Crescent (IFRC), added that the people of China have always been friends of the Filipino people. "Thus your grief and loss is truly ours as well."

The 7.9 magnitude quake that struck was the strongest to hit the Chinese mainland since 1976 which claimed 12,000 lives according to the state-owned news agency.

The Philippines is no stranger to natural calamities and has suffered great loss of lives and property from earthquakes such as the deadly Baguio quake that shook the summer capital and its environs in 1990 and the more recent mudslides in Guisaugon, Southern Leyte and Legaspi City in the province of Albay.