The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) assured robust assistance to Filipinos affected by the recent onslaught of weather disturbances in the Philippines.

“So, sa lahat po, andidito po ang inyong Sandatahang Lakas ng Pilipinas. Tutulong po kami sa lahat ng aming makakaya and ‘wag po tayong mag-panic bagkus matulungan po tayo para po malampasan natin itong mga hamon na hinaharap natin ngayon,” AFP Col. Francel Margareth Padilla said.

Padilla made the remarks in a special report aired on PTV on Thursday. She said the AFP has “been very busy assisting” the public amid the impact of both Tropical Storm Kristine and Super Typhoon Leon.

“In our case po, para po sa paghahanda dito, over and above po dito sa search and rescue operations that are happening with the onslaught of Typhoon Kristine, mayroon po tayong 3,312 na land assets that are available and ready to deploy anytime. We also have around 120 sea assets, and 40 na air assets,” Padilla said.

“Ito po, on top ito sa mga multilateral engagements that we have. So, sa ngayon po, may mga foreign aircrafts that are here in country,” she added.

Among the foreign air assets include a C130 aircraft from Singapore, a EC725 helicopter from Malaysia, a C295 from Brunei, and two aircraft from Indonesia.

“So, sa ngayon po, tulong-tulong po tayo even with our ASEAN counterparts,” Padilla said.

Padilla said foreign forces participating in joint exercises are actively supporting Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HADR) efforts.

“So, this goes to show po na even the exercises that we’ve been conducting, this is actually happening in actuality. So, ‘yung pong mga pagsasanay na ginagawa natin, hindi lang po for defense but also for humanitarian assistance and disaster response and we have seen it now coming to fruition po itong mga efforts natin with like-minded nations,” she said.

“So, nandidito po sila at buong Sandatahan ng Pilipinas po, ang buong puwersa po namin, naka-ready po para tulungan po ang ating [mga] kababayan.” | PND