Help Out Guimaras --- NOW

THE Philippine Coast Guard said Monday it was racing against time to prevent a major environmental disaster as oil seeped from a tanker that sunk in heavy seas over the weekend and a spokesman said it could take more than a year to clean up the mess.The tanker, Solar I, was carrying two million liters (12,580 barrels) of bunker oil when it sank off the central island of Guimaras on Saturday.

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As much as i adhere to Greenpeace's statement, we have to act now, as individuals, as fellow filipinos. With the threat to our natural resources, a group of concerned individuals called the Visayan Sea Squad have started voulunteer work to help out fishermen, residents and fellow ilonggos who have been badly affected. Atty.Oposa, a lawyer specializing on environmental law, is currently heading the organization. It is for this cause that i am coordinating with them to create this donation drive. In lieu of cash, we are readily accepting donations of fishing rubber boots, rubber gloves and masks for the volunteers and fisherfolk who are, as i type, working to clean up the damage, with no thought of their health. They go through the muck in sandals and slippers, with not even a mask to protect their lungs.

Each week we will be sending over the accumulated donations to Iloilo to be distributed. For those in the QC area, please send over donations to 12 Highland drive Blueridge A, Katipunan Q.C. within the week. We send donations by Sunday each week. Please contact the number below if you want to have your donations picked up instead. :-) Cash is also a good alternative, for those who shall donate this, we will be buying the much needed materials for you, and put the donation under your name. Please contact me on where to channel the cash donations if ever, since we don't have an account up yet. You can also send it in through the address given. Please attach with your donations your name and contact number so we can update you on the progress (we cannot pay you for your help, but we can at least thank you through media releases of Visayan Sea Squad).

For further questions and other suggestions to help out, please contact through honeylette@gmail.com or through mobile 0915-785-4035. We are also in the process of setting up donation areas where you can drop off your donations (will give more notice on this soon).

You can also contact these numbers for more donation info and volunteer help:
Archie (0919 2253262)
Haydee (0928 2313193)

A million thanks. It's a struggle to clean up this mess. But with everyone helping out in any way, we can clean this up.