“You are not alone to fend for yourselves,” Philippine President Benigno
Aquino yesterday assured the flood victims huddled at evacuation centres across
Metropolitan Manila and in nearby provinces.
Earlier in the day, Aquino took
his celebrity sister Kris Aquino to Muntinlupa City in Metro Manila to visit
residents reeling from floods the past three days.
The president, Kris and
government officials had to use an Army truck to negotiate flooded streets to
get to Tunasan Elementary School where the evacuees sought shelter from rising
floodwaters.
“I’m very happy to see them
both,” Mary Manalastas, 60, said after receiving a bag of groceries from the
president, referring to the Aquino siblings.
Aquino, who also brought some
Cabinet secretaries with him appealed for patience, saying the flood may take
some time to subside.
“I’m very happy to see you in a
lively mood despite the floods. It seems we’re a gritty people here. Seeing you
like this lightens our burden,” he said.
No quick solution
But the president told the
evacuees, “The flood problem won’t be solved until next week.”
He said there was a proposed
project to ease flooding in Laguna Lake and Marikina River, and this was
doable, but this may take years to complete. “After that, we’ll be able to
avoid this kind of problem.”
The president was also set to
visit devastated areas in Marikina, Quezon and Caloocan cities Wednesday
afternoon. Driving rain and the traffic gridlock on Edsa, however, forced him
to cut short the scheduled visits.
Aerial survey
Aquino ordered an aerial survey
of Metro Manila to determine the extent of the calamity that hit the National
Capital Region and where exactly people needed help.
The president ordered the Philippine
National Police to help motorists in distress and disaster-response agencies to
give priority to rescue operations.
“You’ve tested this
administration, and we performed,” he told reporters later, referring to the
government’s response to the emergency.
The president said flood victims
need not fret about food, as the government had enough to bring to all
evacuation centres.
“You won’t be left alone to fend
for yourselves,” Aquino said at the National Disaster Risk Reduction and
Management Council (NDRRMC) at Camp Aguinaldo, trying to assure people huddled
at evacuation centres that the government was looking after their needs.
At the NDRRMC, Aquino learned
that the entire Malabon City could be accessed only by six-by-six trucks; that
Obando, Bulacan, was in need of rubber boats; that some parts of the capital
were still not passable to all types of vehicles; that apart from Metro Manila,
parts of Bataan, Pampanga, Pangasinan and Zambales provinces were experiencing
power outages, among other things.
Diluvian landscape
A diluvian landscape as far as
the eye could see greeted disaster officials who surveyed communities north of
Manila from the air.
“The sea and floodwaters have
merged. I couldn’t tell which was which,” Defence Undersecretary Benito Ramos
said after flying over the Camanava (Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela
cities) area and towns in Bulacan province along Manila Bay Wednesday morning.
Ramos, executive director of the
NDRRMC, said he and Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin took a helicopter and saw
that at least “30 per cent of Bulacan and Pampanga” were underwater.
“It was high tide and so the sea
and the floodwaters inland merged. I couldn’t tell where one ended and the
other began,” Ramos said in an interview.
As more rain fell, more than a
million people in and around Manila battled deadly floods yesterday, with
neck-deep waters trapping both slum dwellers and the wealthy on rooftops.
Several domestic flights were
diverted to Clark International Airport in the morning because of heavy rains
and winds in the vicinity of Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Death toll
The death toll from this week’s
rain in Manila and nearby provinces rose to 20 after four more people drowned,
according to authorities.
This brought to 73 the confirmed
number of people killed across the country since Typhoon “Gener” (international
name: Soala) triggered heavy rains in late July.
The worst-hit parts of Manila
this week were mostly the poorest districts, where millions of slum dwellers
have built homes along riverbanks, the swampy surrounds of a huge lake, canals
and other areas susceptible to flooding.
Worst-hit was Central Luzon with
49 flooded areas, followed by Calabarzon, 21 areas; Metro Manila, 17 areas, and
the Ilocos, three areas.
The NDRRMC said 126 roads were
not passable to vehicles in Regions I, III, IV-A, VI, the Cordillera
Administrative Region and Metro Manila.
Damage to crops
Damage to crops wrought by the
monsoon rains and Gener over the past weeks was estimated at 152.13 million
pesos (US$3.6 million). The Department of Agriculture said that as of August 7,
the rice sector posted the biggest loss at 131.49 million pesos.
The flooding is not likely to set
back the country’s economic momentum, an economist at Bank of the Philippine
Islands said.
BPI economist Emilio Neri Jr.
said that while a thorough assessment of the situation had yet to be done, his
group was expecting the disruption to have a negligible impact on the growth of
the country’s gross domestic product in the third quarter.
Swelled by the incessant rains,
Laguna de Bay also flooded communities along its shores, including Tunasan in
Muntinlupa City.
Cheering residents
From the flatbed of the Army
truck, Aquino and Kris waved at the residents, including some who rushed out of
their homes and waded in floods, and snapped pictures of them. Seeing them
together riding on a truck amid the floods brought cheer to the residents.
When they finally made it to the
elementary school, shouts of “Kris, Kris, Kris!” filled the air.
After brief remarks, Aquino
distributed bags of relief with Kris, political allies—Aurora Representative
Juan Edgardo Angara, Customs Commissioner Rufino Biazon, Director General Joel
Villanueva of the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority, Akbayan
spokesperson Rissa Hontiveros—and World Food Programme country director Stephen
Anderson.
Some 600 families were sheltering
at the elementary school, according to Agnes Fry, a staff member of the local
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Fry said 3,325 families were
temporarily sheltered in 15 evacuation centres across Muntinlupa City.
She said the families needed toiletries
and potable water, besides food and other basic necessities being provided by
DSWD and the local government.
US$1 = 41.7 pesos
With reports from Michael Lim
Ubac, Ana G. Roa, Jerome Aning, Doris C. Dumlao and AFP
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