A Sarangani resident’s social media post showcasing the contents of a United Arab Emirates relief package has drawn attention online, offering a grassroots glimpse of the foreign aid reaching communities flattened by the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck southern Mindanao on June 8.
Facebook user Leonard Dondon Juban photographed the box and listed its contents item by item, calling it “the Ayuda that the Filipino people deserved.” The pack included five kilos of rice, canned goods such as Holiday corned beef and 555 sardines and tuna, Skyflakes crackers, powdered milk, coffee, drinking water, brown sugar, ethyl alcohol, and germicidal soap. He thanked UAE Aid in a lighthearted closing remark, joking that the volume of goods was enough to open a sari-sari store.
The package is part of a broader relief operation mounted by the Gulf state. The UAE responded through the UAE Aid Agency, whose chairman, Dr. Tareq Ahmed Al Ameri, said the assistance was guided by a needs assessment carried out with Philippine authorities to identify the priorities of affected families. On the ground in Sarangani, Dubai Eye 103.8 reported that the UAE response team had distributed roughly 700 food parcels and 500 gallons of drinking water, while conducting field visits to gauge conditions in damaged areas.
The deliveries documented so far represent an early phase of a much larger commitment. The UAE has pledged to provide more than 20,000 food parcels and 20,000 gallons of drinking water in the coming stages, according to Dubai Eye 103.8.
The earthquake struck off the coast of Sarangani, with the towns of Glan and Malapatan among the hardest hit. At least 78 people were killed and hundreds injured, with more than 70,000 houses damaged across the affected region.
