Compare US, EU, Russia, China ‘Yolanda’ aid to PH; see who PH’s ‘real friends’ were during tragedy

Lately, President Rodrigo Duterte has been making statements that seemed to rock the US-PH relations and expressing his interest to open the Philippines up to alliances with China and Russia.

Facebook page “911 Philippine Supporters” posted an “FYI (For Your Information)” on October 8 showing the top ten foreign aid donors to the country in 2011. The chart showed Japan as the first top donor, China as the second top donor, and US as the fifth top donor.

Here is a clearer photo of that Devex Research chart from the article “Top 10 foreign aid donors to the Philippines” by Peter Troilo.

But let’s take note that this was in 2011. This was before the Philippines, under former President Benigno Aquino III, filed an arbitration case against China in the maritime dispute over the West Philippine Sea on January 22, 2013.

Former National Security Adviser and Representative Roilo Golez on October 8 posted on his Facebook page “to show who are our real friends and who cared very little when tragedy struck the Philippines,” referring to Yolanda in 2013.

He then quoted and attached an ABS-CBN Investigative and Research Group report about “How much ‘Yolanda’ aid did PH get from US, EU?”

[ads1]

ABS-CBN based their report on the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA).

United Kingdom topped the list of donors with $122.7 million (14.2% of total Yolanda aid). US was the third top donor with its $90.6 million aid (10.5% of total aid). UN was fourth with $81.5 million donation (9.4% of total aid) and the EU was the 7^th top donor with $40.5 million (4.7% of total aid).

On the other hand, China donated $2.7 million (0.3% of total Yolanda funding) and Russian Federation gave $5.7 million (0.7% of total aid). Both countries “gave less than 1 percent of total funding” to the Yolanda victims.

China was criticized for initially donating only $100,000 of emergency humanitarian aid. The Associated Press then reported that China pledged less than $2 million in cash and materials, which is less than the $2.7 million offered by Swedish furniture chain Ikea and the $2.5 million in cash and aid donated by the Coca-Cola Company.

As Golez has pointed out, the foreign aid to the Philippines during a time of tragedy showed us, Filipinos, who our “real friends” are.

Source: (news.abs-cbn.com, facebook.com, devex.com, unocha.org, philstar.com)

[ads3]