Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in the Kingdom have expressed concern over the welfare of their families in areas hit by Typhoon Ruby, also known as locally as Hagupit. A recent update from an official at Tacloban City, the same place that was devastated last year, said that so far there haven’t been any casualties there.

The Philippine government had issued a public storm warning for 36 geographic areas from the southeastern part of main Luzon island through central Visayas and the northeastern part of Mindanao.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III had called on Filipinos on Saturday to help one another after the onslaught of the typhoon. He had asked every civil defense department to be on alert so as to help people during the state of emergency.

“We must do our utmost, leave nothing to chance, improve where we can, and match what we have done so well in the past,” said Aquino at a briefing with the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Sharing his thoughts with Arab News, Migrante-Middle East (M-ME) regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona said that his organization and allied groups are preparing to launch their ‘Sagip Migrante’ donation campaign for the victims of typhoon Hagupit.

“We will mobilize our ranks to ask for a relief and recovery operation through our Migrante office in Manila and our offices in the Visayas,” said Monterona.

Monterona also pointed out that the typhoon will certainly affect OFW families in the areas where it will strike. “This would bring a bleak Christmas for them. We do hope and pray that it won’t bring so much devastation to the lives and livelihood of our people.”

Other OFWs can only offer prayers for their families and country. “We believe that every creature and event on earth including typhoons is under God’s command and He has absolute power over them,” said Gammy G. Anugod, and OFW engineer based in Riyadh. Anugod keeps his family in his prayers, and claimed that he prays God will divert the typhoon’s route.

Others say that officials in the country are glad to have such natural disasters, so as to receive international financial assistance, another Filipino worker commented, referring to the massive political corruption in the country.