Press Release
October 11, 2009

CHIZ CALLS FOR COMMUNITY ACTION IN LUZON

Opposition Sen. Chiz Escudero is calling for community leaders and students throughout Luzon to help other affected areas who cannot go back to school or continue with their work because of the devastation left by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng.

He said students helping their "classmates" in the entire region would put to good use their time and skills. "This is like an SOS movement for students: SOS which can be translated to Save Our Students movement. Students must find it in themselves to volunteer and contribute to improving neighboring communities and schools," he said.

He said that while their own schools are still being used as evacuation centers and are still scheduled for repair, there is no better assignment than to help their fellow students who can't go to class because all of their blackboards, chalks, erasers, and pens, have been destroyed or washed away.

"It's a complicated suggestion but I know that if the students look deep within their hearts, volunteering would just be easy for them to do," he said.

Escudero suggested that school officials should organize groups or batches which can be sent to different schools which were badly damaged by the two typhoons. He added that they can also set social immersion programs which could easily send them to other parts of Luzon reaching as far as Metro Manila, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, or Baguio.

"More than anything else, the lessons they learned from this experience are lessons in life that they will never learn from mere books or classroom work," he concluded.

The senator is also set to sponsor a senate bill that would allocate P12 billion for the calamity fund. He added that a "one-stop shop" for the towns which where affected could be helpful in immediately replacing damaged passports, birth certificates, marriage certificates, professional drivers' licenses, and others. He said that the Department of Foreign Affairs, National Statistics Office, Land Registration Authority, Land Transportation Office, Professional Regulations Commission, Department of Education, and the Commission on Higher Education could set up their offices in this one-stop shop.

"Let us ease the pain of letting people fall in line and retrieve necessary documents they lost in the floods," he said.

He added that Bicolanos, and particularly, the people of Sorsogon have already launched a similar project. He said that the biggest festival in Sorsogon has been 'toned-down,' as the Kasanggayahan Foundation made the decision in line with reports of numerous deaths due to Ondoy and Pepeng.

He recognizes the need for communities to bond together and help out neighboring towns and villages. He said that with the waters rising quickly, some residents have lost all their material possessions including valuable documents and photographs.

"Everyone in Bicol, even with their own trials, went out of their way to provide relief and support for the victims in the two typhoons. They have been going door-to-door to check what others need at this very difficult time," he said.

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