Noel Cabangon song used to raise funds for ‘Yolanda’ victims

MANILA, Philippines- Noel Cabangon is happy that his song “After the Deluge” will be used for a cause.

The single will be used to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity’s "I Build campaign", which aims to help the victims of typhoon Yolanda in Visayas.

“This is the first time I wrote about a disaster, “ Cabangon said during the MOA signing Friday, February 21. “A few days after Yolanda, I wrote this song, hoping that it will be interpreted by James Taylor,” he said eliciting laughter from the crowd.

“But then, this is his way of “doing something” for the country.

“I’ve been an activist since the ‘80s. I always wanted to do something for my country.”

Supporting this cause are Praise Inc., and Zed which will be in charge for the download of the song.

Russ Esquierdo of Zed explained the mechanics of downloading the song, which will serve as a ringback or that song which will heard by a person calling a number.

“You can participate in this campaign no matter what your status in life is, regardless of your network provider,” Russ said. “All you have to do is simply text ‘YOLANDA’ to 8933, and it’ll be available starting February 28.

“The rate for that is, free for five days. On the sixth day, you’ll be charged 15 pesos for fifteen days or one peso per day. So that’s something very affordable.”

A percentage of the funds raised by purchasing the ringback will proceed to Habitat for Humanity.

Habitat for Humanity President and CEO Charlie Ayco said that these houses will be given to the victims “with no payment,” which is different from their previous projects.

“Dati kasi we build the house, give it to a family and then they will repay the building of the house so that we could use that payment to build another house for another family,” he explained.

The organization aims to build 30,000 houses which costs P200,000  each,  for a total project cost of P6 billion. This number of houses is just 10 percent of the destroyed houses in the region, Ayco said.

They started their rehabilitation efforts by giving away shelter repair kits, which is 75-percent completed.