In keeping with BDO Foundation’s disaster response advocacy, volunteers from BDO branches in Ormoc City, Leyte recently mounted relief operations for people affected by the 6.5-magnitude earthquake that devastated the province.
BDO officers and staff, led by BDO Leyte-Ormoc branch head Felda Orito, distributed 1,700 relief packs containing food and water to disaster-stricken residents of the city.
Church volunteers and representatives from the local office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development also joined the activity.
The relief operations were initiated by BDO Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of BDO Unibank, in response to the earthquake and almost 300 aftershocks that shook Leyte.
The foundation conducts relief operations with the support of volunteers from more than 1,000 BDO branches nationwide. The initiative is in line with Foundation’s commitment to serve communities marginalized by natural or man-made disasters.
The Leyte tremors triggered landslides, cut off electricity to the island, and damaged homes, school buildings and roads. Due to the earthquakes, Ormoc was placed under a state of calamity by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.