Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro (left) meets with UN Resident Coordinator Jacqueline Badcock during the launch of ‘Flash Appeal’ aimed at helping typhoon victims and discuss possible solutions during disasters. (Photo by MARIANNE BERMUDEZ)

United Nations-Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs John Holmes is set to visit the Philippines on Monday to assess the situation in typhoon devastated areas.

This was disclosed by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) resident representative Jacqueline Badcock during the Manila launch of the United Nations Flash Appeal for the victims of tropical storm “Ondoy” at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza on Wednesday afternoon.

“John Holmes will visit Manila on Monday,” Badcock disclosed. A similar Flash Appeal for the Philippines had been held in Geneva, Switzerland Tuesday.

According to Badcock, 3.9-million Filipinos have been affected by tropical storm “Ondoy,” in which one million people are in need to be given immediate relief assistance. About 335,000 people are currently in evacuation centers while 700,000 people had been displaced during the typhoon. There were also about 16,000 houses that were destroyed.

Badcock said that based on rapid needs assessment, the immediate needs include food and nutrition, water and sanitation, hygiene, health, shelter, and non-food items, as well as logistics, emergency telecommunication and coordination, child protection and camp management.

She also said there is a “clear need for urgent interventions in the education sector” as schools and school materials had also been destroyed by the typhoon. “We urge donor communities to lend their support to the project’s outline in the appeal. One million in affected areas continue to be in need of humanitarian assistance,” Badcock said.

Badcock explained that a Flash Appeal is called by governments who feel that the disaster is beyond their capacity to respond at a particular time. A similar Flash Appeal had been made by the UN following the onslaught of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar last year.

In the Philippines, the last time the government had made a Flash Appeal was in 2006 following the devastation brought by typhoon “Milenyo,” supertyphoon “Reming,” and typhoon “Seniang.”