An earthquake with a 6.5 magnitude struck the island of Leyte last July 7, 2017. Many houses in Ormoc City and Kananga town were badly damaged by the tremors, and of the succeeding aftershocks. The Province of St. Ezekiel Moreno thru the Commission on Social and Ecological Concerns – Recoletos organized an immediate relief response to the affected families; the commission started to adapt the name ARCORES (Augustinian Recollect Solidarity network – Philippines) to allign the Order’s call for a unified identity in our social outreach efforts globally.
For this effort on earthquake relief drive called “Eco-Tabang” the Province released the amount of Php 150,000.00 from the heartanonymous fund. Eco-Tabang (‘eco-help’ or ‘eco-outreach) is an eco-sustainable outreach of ARCORES (Augustinian Recollect Solidarity network – Philippines) HEARTanonymous & USJ-R Infecop in partnership with Sustainable Energy and Enterprise Development for Communities, Greenpeace Philippines & The Climate Reality Project Philippines.
On July 12, 2017, the ARCORES team visited the ground zero of the earthquake in Barangay Lake Danao, Ormoc City on whose chapel is dedicated to St. Ezekiel Moreno, distributing 120 solar lamps, banig (sleeping mats) and recycled tarpaulins to the 87 affected families.
