Philippines offers assistance to typhoon-hit Japan

Firefighters with rescue dogs search for missing people after heavy rain hit southwestern Japan, in Kumano town, Hiroshima prefecture, Monday, July 9, 2018. Rescuers in southwestern Japan dug up more bodies Monday as they searched for dozens still missing after heavy rains caused severe flooding and left residents to return to their homes unsure where to start the cleanup.
Kyodo News via AP

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte offered to send aid to disaster-hit Japan, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said.

In a press briefing Tuesday, Roque said Malacañang will provide assistance to Japan by sending engineers, doctors and soldiers.

The government will also send medicine, the president’s mouthpiece added.

Roque also said that Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano would relay the Philippines’ offer of assistance to the Japanese ambassador.

Flooding and mudslides triggered by heavy rains have left at least 134 individuals dead and 50 more people still unaccounted for in southwestern Japan.

Thousands of homes were still without clean water and electricity in Hiroshima and other hard-hit areas.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the Japanese government mobilized 75,000 troops and emergency workers for the search and rescue effort. — Philstar.com intern Ali Ian Marcelino V. Biong with reports from Associated Press

Show comments