China offers more assistance to Philippine typhoon victims

MANILA, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- China offered 1 million U.S. dollars in cash and another 4,725 tons of rice on Wednesday to help the victims of Typhoon Rai in the Philippines.

Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian announced the assistance at the handover ceremony of the rice, the last batch of the 10,000 tons that China donated to the Philippines.

The emergency cash assistance is to support the relief and recovery efforts of the Philippine government and people against the disaster brought by the devastating typhoon, Huang said, expressing hope that the fresh batch of rice will contribute to the Philippines' humanitarian relief operations in typhoon-hit areas.

On Tuesday, the Chinese embassy in Manila raised 20,000 food packages containing rice, canned food, and noodles packs. Huang said the relief goods had reached typhoon-affected areas such as Cebu, Leyte, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Bohol, Cagayan de Oro City, Surigao City, among others.

Huang said China will continue to support the Philippines' relief and recovery efforts "to the best of its ability."

"China and the Philippines are close and friendly neighbors who always help and support each other through trying times," the ambassador said.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared Tuesday night a state of calamity in several regions to speed up relief efforts for victims of Typhoon Rai.

Philippine Social Welfare Director Emmanuel Privado, who received the donated rice from China on Wednesday, thanked the Chinese government for its generosity.

Privado said the Chinese donations are timely, saying his government is in the thick of distributing relief goods to the typhoon victims.

"We express our heartfelt gratitude to the people of Chinese for these donations. This is so timely. The typhoon victims will benefit from these," he said.

Typhoon Rai, which battered the Philippines last week, affected more than 1.3 million and is feared to have killed at least 375 in the central and southern Philippine and parts of the main Luzon island.