MECO chair Silvestre H. Bello III visited Hualien County:ECO chair Silvestre H. Bello III visited Hualien County, the epicenter of the tremor, on Sunday and distributed relief packs and cash assistance to hundreds of Filipino workers whose work and lives were disrupted by the tragedy.
‘President Bongbong Marcos is very much concerned with your situation here and he has instructed us to extend all needed assistance to ease your condition,’ Bello told the Filipinos.
The magnitude 7.2 earthquake (7.3 and 7.4 in other reports) struck off the coast of the county in eastern Taiwan at 7:58 a.m.
The Focus Taiwan news outlet said that as of Sunday 8 a.m., there are 13 dead; 1,133 injured; and six missing.
Bello also met with county officials and thanked them for looking after the Filipinos.
‘We are here to extend the sympathy of our President to the government and people of Hualien. We are also here to check the condition of our kababayan (compatriots),’ he said.
MECO deputy resident representative Alice Vispera
s, Migrant Workers Office director Cesar Chavez and Welfare Officer Ruth Vibar joined Bello.
Hualien, the biggest county and a major tourist destination in Taiwan, is host to about 1,400 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
Earlier on Friday, Bello met with about 30 Filipino community group leaders who reported the situation of their members.
During the meeting, he also relayed the President’s message to the OFWS.
MECO had distributed T$150,000 (about PHP265,000) in assistance.
Bello had also visited the four OFWs who sustained injuries and handed them T$10,000 each.
MANILA: The country’s gross international reserves (GIR) went up to USD104 billion as of end-March this year, data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.
Preliminary data showed that the GIR level was higher than the USD102 billion month-on-month, according to the report released over the weekend.
The BSP’s reserve assets consist of foreign investments, gold, foreign exchange, reserve position in the International Monetary Fund (
IMF), and special drawing rights.
“The month-on-month increase in the GIR level reflected mainly the National Government’s (NG) net foreign currency deposits with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), upward valuation adjustments in the value of the BSP’s gold holdings due to the increase in the price of gold in the international market, and net income from the BSP’s investments abroad,” the BSP said.
The net international reserves, which refers to the difference between the BSP reserve assets (GIR) and reserve liabilities (short-term foreign debt and credit and loans from the IMF), also rose to USD103.8 billion as of end-March 2024 from the end-February level of USD102 billion.
“The latest GIR level represents a more than adequate external liquidity buffer equivalent to 7.7 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income,” the BSP said.
It is also about 6.1 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.7 times based on residual maturity.
By
convention, the GIR is viewed to be adequate if it can finance at least three months’ worth of the country’s imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.
Source: Philippines News Agency