US NGO raises donations for Sulu evacuees

WASHINGTON — After donating more than $2 million worth of medicines for people displaced by the war in Maguindanao, a US non-government organization is raising more money for school and medical supplies, this time for evacuees in Tawi-Tawi and Sulu.

The American Foreign Policy Council’s Asia-Pacific Initiative (API) headed by Al Santoli is seeking private donations for its Development for Peace in Sulu project to assist, through health and education services, indigent people in the war-affected areas of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The Philippine Embassy in Washington hosted a reception last Tuesday to introduce the API project in Mindanao to more than 200 prominent guests with ties to the Philippines, giving Santoli a platform to lobby for support from prospective private donors and foundations.

He told reporters he hopes to raise about $4 million to $5 million in cash, goods and services for Tawi-Tawi and Sulu.

Ideally, he would like donations in cash so he can leverage them to three or four times their value, but said he is not about to turn down contributions in goods and services.

Last May, Santoli, a senior vice president of the Washington-based AFPC think tank, handed over to Philippine officials 11 tons of medical supplies worth about $2 million that he got from charitable pharmaceutical firms at a fraction of their cost.

The Arroyo administration designated the Asia-Pacific Initiative last November to coordinate the activities of US non-governmental agencies and other private sector entities in the Development for Peace in Sulu project, in partnership with the central government and the ARMM.

Santoli hopes to visit Tawi-Tawi in December with the first batch of newly donated goods.