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OPERATION TULONG BAYAN
Four typhoons
battered Luzon before 2004 ended causing death, injury,
homelessness and billions worth of damage to crops,
property and infrastructure. Among the hardest hit areas
were the coastal towns of Real and Infanta and the province
of Aurora. ABC5 was among the media companies which
rose to the challenge of bringing help to the residents
of the affected areas. Its Corporate Affairs department
organized Operation Tulong Bayan, and with the help
of the News & Public Affairs department generated
goods and financial assistance from concerned private
citizens and the business sector, with the San Miguel
Corporation and DPC Directories leading the generous
donors. Donations were received at the network’s
Quezon City studios.
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The network’s
production studios were converted into storage and processing/
packaging assembly lines for the relief goods consisting
of clothes, rice, canned goods, milk, medicines, gallons
and gallons of distilled water, even candies and toys
for children, as the relief sorties happened immediately
before and after Christmas. Employees, as well as security
and building maintenance personnel readily and happily
volunteered for the job, working late into night, even
on weekends to get the relief goods individually and
strongly packed for the long, arduous journey. |
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Volunteers
from the network’s various operating departments
joined the Corporate Affairs and the News & Public
Affairs offices in the relief sorties. Relief teams
were sent to Montalban in Rizal, Calumpit, Bulacan and
Candaba, Pampanga, which were relatively nearer and
easier to negotiate. The more difficult challenge was
how to get the relief goods to Quezon and Aurora which
were virtually cut off from civilization. A first trip
to Real, and then a second trip back to Real and to
Infanta in Quezon province. The damage was unbelievable,
the journey itself was punishing and life-threatening.The
volunteer groups negotiated floods, mudslides, eroded
roads and pathways. But the reward was sweet –
the look on the faces, especially of children. |
PHOTOS>>
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