2014 Pacific Partnership multinational humanitarian aid, relief mission kick off in Tacloban City

From the Philippine News Agency (Jul 6): 2014 Pacific Partnership multinational humanitarian aid, relief mission kick off in Tacloban City
 
The multinational humanitarian aid and relief mission of the 2014 Pacific Partnership (PP 14) officially kicked off over the weekend with close to 300 military personnel from United States, Japan, Australia and Malaysia now working side by side with their Filipino counterparts in the delivery of various services to typhoon hit Tacloban City and Palo, Leyte.

Capt. Brian Shipman, mission commander of PP 14 during the opening program held at Patio Victoria here said that this year’s mission is a big leap because it is the first time that a partner nation deployed a host ship to accommodate multinationals involved in the mission.

“The big difference this year is having a partner nation provide a host ship to go from country to country. That’s never been done before,” Shipman said.

Nonetheless, he stressed that the mission of the partnership remains the same.

“It direct involvement of improving conditions on the ground but it’s also in building capacity with all our fellow services working side by side so that we understand each other better, we work together better so that the next time there is a disaster we’re better able to hit it immediately, make an immediate impact,” Captain Shipman explained.

Mayor Alfred Romualdez, meantime, expressed that this mission is different because they were already able to put to use all their exercises when Yolanda struck November 8 last year.

When they came back he said that they were already able to see the improvement, they had their learnings and their relationship and cohesiveness became stronger.

“I’m very happy that this partnership started several years ago. It did not start during Yolanda that’s why the response was quite successful and saved a lot of lives,” he said.

The city mayor said that it would be “very hard to coordinate all those efforts if it was not thought of or practiced.” He added that the 2013 response was “one of the biggest and the coordination was very good; it was textbook.”

“We don’t even know about this partnership. I salute the leaders who have crafted this partnership because it definitely saved lives,” he added.

Activities for the 11-day mission were identified based on what the needs of the host country are, said Shipman.

”When we put the mission together we try to tailor our effort to meet those needs,” he said.

However, as early as middle of June, construction engineers of the United States Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of the Philippines already started the construction of four-classroom buildings and two-classroom science buildings at the San Fernando Central Elementary School here and repair one room of the orthopedic building at the Tacloban City Hospital.

They also constructed two classrooms at the Castilla Elementary School in Palo, Leyte.

The mission kicked off its canine castration and rabies vaccination on Saturday that will end this July 14.

A medical mission is slated July 7 at the Diit District Health Center and July 10 to 12 at the San Jose District Health Center.

During these missions they will be focusing on dental, women and children’s health, psychological counseling, optometry, pharmacy and nutrition.

From July 7-9, a U S Navy Rock Band will perform starting at one o’clock in the afternoon at the Robinsons Mall here.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=660034