Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 12) — The House of Representatives is set to donate $100,000 to earthquake victims in Turkey, now called Türkiye.
In a statement released on Sunday, the office of Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said the fund would come from the Speaker’s Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation Initiative, which was launched during his 59th birthday last Nov. 14 and raised ₱70.92 million. So far, contributions to the Speaker’s initiative have reached ₱120 million, and among the first beneficiaries are victims of the Navotas fire, those affected by flooding in Visayas and Mindanao, and victims of Typhoon Paeng.
Romualdez will turn over the $100,000 assistance to Turkish Ambassador to the Philippines Niyazi Evren Akyol and his wife Inddri Puspitarasi on Monday at his office at the Batasang Pambansa complex in Quezon City.
Romualdez acknowledged Türkiye’s assistance to the Philippines during the aftermath of Super Typhoon Yolanda in 2013, saying it “helped ease the pain and suffering of our people.”
Latest reports said over 28,000 people died in the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that devastated Türkiye and Syria on Feb. 6.
