WASHINGTON — Philippine ambassador to the United States Albert del Rosario has appealed to the members of the Filipino-American community to participate in a fund-raising drive for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

In this connection, Del Rosario said that the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. and all Philippine Consulates in the United States are ready to receive check donations payable to the American Red Cross from the members of the community.

To kick off this fund-raising, the Philippine foreign service officers and staff in the U.S. are committed to donating a total amount equivalent of at least $10,000 which will be matched by another $10,000 in terms of a personal donation from Loida Nicolas-Lewis, president of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA).

All check donations received by the embassy and the consulates will be gathered and will be turned over to the American Red Cross as the collective donation of the Filipino-American community.

“In the true Filipino bayanihan spirit,” Del Rosario said, “The Filipino-American community’s participation in this fund-raising drive will concretely demonstrate its sense of civic duty, its humanitarianism and its commitment to be a positive force in American society.”

For transparency, the names of all donors and the corresponding amounts donated will be posted in the embassy website which is www.philippineembassy-usa.org

The embassy will also issue periodic public announcements to give a running tally of all donations received by all Philippine foreign service posts in the U.S.

Del Rosario said that this initiative is in addition to the embassy’s efforts to rally the help of Filipino-American doctors and nurses from Texas and other states. “We are currently working with the State Department in terms of how this assistance can be ‘embedded’ in the federal government’s system of relief and rehabilitation operations.”

The ambassador also announced that the Philippine Government is preparing to send a team of doctors and sanitary engineers to assist in the relief and rehabilitation efforts in the hurricane-ravaged areas.

This offer of support by the Philippine Government to the U.S. has already been publicly acknowledged by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.