PORT HUENEME : Benefit Planned to Aid Volcano Victims

Some members of Ventura County’s Filipino community are rallying to collect clothing, food and money to help victims of this month’s devastating volcanic eruptions in the Philippines.

Efforts among the county’s estimated 11,000 Filipino-Americans will be highlighted by a talent show on July 13 in Port Hueneme’s Dorill B. Wright Cultural Center.

Part of the show’s proceeds will be sent to Zambales, the province hardest hit by the eruptions and by mudslides, heavy ash and a typhoon that followed, according to Fred Rosete, president of the Zambales Assn. of Ventura County, which is sponsoring the show.

Rosete said his group will meet Sunday to plan efforts to collect food and clothing.

Rosete said he has had no word of the whereabouts of his 87-year-old mother and other family members in the town of San Felipe since nearby Mt. Pinatubo first erupted June 9.

“I understand most of the homes in the town were destroyed,” he said. “The last I heard, my mother was being evacuated to Manila, but she couldn’t get through because a bridge was down.”

Felicitas Soliman of Oxnard said she is helping in a Southern California drive to collect 200 large boxes of canned food and clothing for residents of San Marcelino, another town badly damaged by the volcano. She said she has not heard from her daughter, brother and sister, who live there.

The death toll in the disaster has reached 169, and an estimated 250,000 people are homeless.

Those wishing to contribute money, food or clothing to disaster victims may call Lucy Fernandez, vice president of the Zambales Assn., at 488-6312.