Manila (AsiaNews/CBCP) - The Catholic Church in the Philippines has raised 7.7 million US dollars to help rebuild areas devastated by Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) , and these funds "will be handled with the greatest possible transparency. All donations will be monitored from beginning to end, so that every single peso goes where it is needed", says Fr. Edu Gariguez , executive secretary of the National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace (NASSA) which coordinates the social and charitable activities of the Filipino bishops' conference.
All donations to the Church for
the rescue operation, said Fr . Gariguez, "have strict and efficient accounting
mechanisms and processes.
Foreign companies that follow international standards for the management of the
funds, will monitor our work. Finally, we will publish detailed reports on each
project".
Haiyan
/ Yolanda hit the Visayas islands (central Philippines) on November 8, 2013, affecting
at least 11 million people. It will take
at least eight billion dollars to restore the damaged areas to full normalcy. There
are still more than 1,700 people lost or missing, the death toll has exceeded 5
thousand people, although President Aquino has insisted the figures be contained
after initial estimates of more than 10 thousand victims. This data, the head of state claims, was the
result of the emotional reaction to the tragedy and the real number of deaths does not exceed 2,500.
Moreover,
the extent of the territory, its fragmentation and difficulties in reaching
some areas have been a serious obstacle to rebuilding operations. Almost
11 million inhabitants suffered damage or losses of varying degrees, scattered
among 574 municipalities and different cities. PIME (Pontifical Institute for
Foreign Missions) has launched
a fundraising campaign to help the survivors.