Luis Raymund Villafuerte

Luis Raymund "LRay" Favis Villafuerte, Jr. (born June 3, 1968) is a Filipino politician who is the current Representative of Camarines Sur's 2nd District in the Philippine House of Representatives. He earlier served as Governor of Camarines Sur from 2004-2013. He is the son of former Governor and Congressman Luis Villafuerte, Sr..^[1][2] and banker Nelly Favis.

Early life

Villafuerte was born in Libmanan, Camarines Sur, to Luis Villafuerte, Sr. and Nelly Favis-Villafuerte.^[1]

Education

Governor LRay, as he is commonly called, earned his bachelor's degree in Political Science at the De La Salle University and took his Executive Education from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.^[1]

Disaster relief

During his office in 2006, those three mega typhoons – Milenyo in September, Paeng in October and Reming in December, turned to be a historical disaster with enormous destruction. It called for urgent and coordinated disaster relief, while taking stock of the damage was the basis for concerted plans. Governor Luis Villafuerte reported to the international rescue sector that initially 331,000 citizens, or over 66,168 families were in situation of homeless completely; homes of approximately another 77,046 families were severely damaged. Extended support measures were introduced based on the tentative report that Governor’s office photographed houses and school buildings in villages damaged seriously; UNICEF on the assumption that 30% of the population is under 18.

As an example of international rescue mission, the UNICEF international coordinated US$450,000 worth of physical support. From family care packs as well as tarpaulins for makeshift shelters, and to replace seriously damaged water supply infrastructure, means to keep fresh water was introduced by tanks to stock 400 litters, 20 gallon water gerry cans for households, and water purification tablets were prepared and brought in. Generators for electricity much needed at hospitals along with tents, and mosquito nets to prevent outbreak of malaria were all important disease control tools.

The first tentative report such as Governor Villafuerte made it possible to estimate further needs, logistics, storage, and distribution channels for long-term disaster aids. Hours after the damage was estimated, the basic human needs would be sustained at the minimum with food, cooking utensils, plastic sheets, blankets, soap and clothes, and those were brought into the five worst affected provinces by governmental/NGO and NPO institutions within days.^[3]

References