TACLOBAN CITY – After staying close to a year, members of the South Korean Joint Support Group, which are conducting humanitarian missions, are to leave Leyte by December of this year. This was revealed by the mission’s chief of public relations, Major Kwon Doo Young, who added that much as they want to stay longer in Leyte, worst hit by supertyphoon Yolanda, they could not do so unless there is an order from their national government.
However, Young, speaking through his interpreter Corporal Sungho Park, said that during their almost a year stint in Leyte, they were able to so far repair 45 public buildings that were destroyed by Yolanda.
He added that the Korean government allocated P1.25 billion for the group to undertake their humanitarian mission. The Korean group, also known as the Araw contingent, conducted their mission in the towns of Palo, Tanauan and Tolosa, among the areas in Leyte that suffered much devastation due to Yolanda, world’s strongest typhoon to make landfall.
The group rehabilitated school buildings, senior citizens buildings, police stations, fire stations, day centers, post office and hospitals found in the three towns. The contingent also repaired two public structures in Tacloban City, Yolanda’s ground zero, Manlurip Elementary School and the building at the Bulwagan ng Katarungan (Justice Building) which they considered as their special projects.
The Korean group also conducted heavy equipment training course to the residents of Palo, Tanauan, Tolosa and Tanauan. Kwon also said that they will also open this month a training school for farm equipment/machinery operation in Palo. (ROEL T. AMAZONA)
