Ondoy drenches Metro Manila with the heaviest rainfall in four decades.

I know this isn’t what I usually write about. Please bear with me.

When I was twelve years old a typhoon hit my hometown. Since my siblings and I were children at the time we saw the flood in the same light as many of the kids who were playing in the flood waters after the rains lightened up — no school, instant swimming pools, watching the adults scramble to pile furniture on top of each other in an effort to save as much as they could.

I remember being evacuated, sitting on the shoulders of our driver while the water rose up to his neck, watching dogs paddle along. I remember sitting in a fire truck, wearing a clear plastic raincoat a fireman lent me, when the gravity of what had just happened hit me. All our things were now underwater, all the books that I loved reading, all our wooden furniture swelling with all the soaked-up floodwater.

It prepared me and my family for the other disasters that followed in the next few years — the earthquake of 1990, the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo.

It’s one thing to watch a natural disaster happening on TV. It’s another to be right there when it is happening all around you.

The victims of Ondoy need help. And not the half-hearted help certain presidents’ sons have been extending, but whatever you can spare.

Here’s a list of places you can give donations, care of Spot.ph:

Petron
All stations are Department of Social Welfare and Development drop off points

Phlippine National Red Cross
METROBANK
Port Area Branch
Peso Acct.: 151-3-041-63122-8
Dollar Acct.: 151-2-151-00218-2
Type of Acct. : SAVINGS
Swift Code: MBTC PH MM

BANK OF THE PHIL. ISLANDS
Port Area Branch
Peso Acct.: 4991-0010-99
Type of Account: CURRENT

BANK OF THE PHIL. ISLANDS
UN Branch
Dollar Acct.: 8114-0030-94
Type of Account: SAVINGS
Swift Code: BOPI PH MM
For your donations to be properly acknowledged, please fax the bank
transaction slip at nos. +63.2.527.0575 or +63.2.404.0979 with your
name, address and contact number.

For online donations you may also visit the website at www.redcross.org.ph.

San Juan
La Salle Greenhills students have set up a donation stand inside Unimart, in front of the alcohol/liquor area.
They will receive all cash and in-kind donations to be transferred to LSGH Gate 2.

Quezon City
Caritas Manila office
Relief goods can also be brought Radio Veritas at Veritas Tower West Ave. corner EDSA, Quezon City
Tel No. 9257931-40.

Ateneo de Manila University
Loyola Heights, Katipunan Avenue. Drop off at the MVP Lobby or at the Cervini dorms. Call 426-6001. Or contact 09176312423 and 09177035357

Our Lady of Pentecost Parish
12 F. Dela Rosa corner C. Salvador Sts., Loyola Heights, Quezon City
Tel. Nos. 434-2397, 929-0665

Camp Aguinaldo
For donations of relief goods, please deliver them to CRS Office, Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City. or call 0915-1162853. Food, Medicine, Clothes and other relief items are much needed.
A collection point for relief goods was also set up at the GHQ gym in Camp Aguinaldo (near the Soldier’s mall, past Gate 3).

Makati

San Antonio Parish, Forbes Park
Accepting all kinds of relief goods.
Contact JJ Yulo or Mike Yuson.

Power Plant Mall Stores: Myron’s, Team Manila, ARANAZ, MOONSHINE, LUCA
Now accepting donations of food, water, clothing and medicines, no cash pls. Call 898-1702 for Power Plant Mall.

Mandaluyong City
SM Megamall: Smart branches, Papemelroti store (no cash)

Shangri-La Plaza Mall: LUCA
Now accepting donations of food, water and medicines.

Relief centers also tend to be shorthanded, so even if you don’t have anything to donate, you can lend a hand by dropping by personally.

Let’s make a difference this time.

EDIT: A group of Atenean volunteers calling themselves ORCA have put up a blog for their collection drive here. Every little bit helps!

Like

Unlike