The Benigno Aquino III administration yesterday said it was gearing up
for “sustained relief operations” in both souhtern Philippine provinces of
Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental as some 90,000 families had been left
homeless and bereft of livelihood in the aftermath of Typhoon “Pablo”
(international name: Bohpa).
In an unscheduled press
conference at the Palace, Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras assured typhoon
victims that Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman and Lt. Gen. Jorge Segovia,
commander of the Eastern Mindanao Command, were on top of the situation.
“The national government is very,
very cognisant of the fact that this is not a quick fix,” Almendras said.
He denied reports of rioting and
disorganised distribution of food packs to residents of typhoon-ravaged areas
in New Bataan, Compostela Valley.
“The disaster is of a magnitude
that we have never seen before,” Almendras said.
Question of hands, feet
“It’s not a question of resources
but hands and feet,” he said of the efforts to bring the relief goods to the
villages hit by Pablo.
“This is going to be a long haul.
Fortunately for us, we have the resources. We have the money. There is still a
balance in the calamity fund. There is augmentation that can be used for that
and we are ready to provide that support,” he said.
Almendras and Soliman were
planning to go back to Davao Oriental on Friday “just [to] assure people that
things are happening there and that the national government is definitely going
to be with them. We will not turn our backs on them. The instruction of the
pesident is to bring them back up their feet and we are very, very serious
about doing that.”
The funds will be released
immediately although “there is no immediate rush for it because there are still
stocks” for relief operations, said Almendras.
“But we realised that this is not
something that can be finished this week—or not even next week. We realised
that we need to support the food requirements of [the victims]. Our calculation
on Saturday was 80,000 families. It’s going to be a bit bigger now. Maybe it
will go up to 90,000 families for the next few weeks. We need to provide for
them [relief goods] and shelter,” Almendras said.
‘Fantastic job’
Almendras explained that Segovia
and the others—Col. Edgardo de Leon, chief of Operations Search and Rescue,
Navy Capt. Robert Empedrad, commander of Maritime Search and Rescue, and Col.
Randy Tibayan, commander of Aerial Search and Rescue—had to leave the disaster
areas and face the media in Manila “to set the record straight”.
The president summoned these
officials, along with Benito Ramos, executive director of the National Disaster
Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), to a closed-door meeting at the
Palace for a briefing on the progress of the search and rescue efforts.
Almendras said that there had
been reports that Navy ships delivering supplies had been mobbed by people,
that relief distribution had been disorganised and the people in need were not
being reached.
“All of them are here to answer
those questions. There have been very many reports about what has not been
done. There have been criticisms as to the effect of what the military has
failed to do,” he said.
Almendras had a four-hour command
meeting in Davao with both military and government organisations, where they
set up a system and a process “to make sure that we can deliver to the victims
as fast as we can”.
“And from where I sit and what I
have seen, I think our uniformed personnel have done a fantastic job in Davao.
I know that there will always be criticisms because there is always not enough
that can be done.
“But the truth of the matter is I
have seen our uniformed men and women sacrifice so much just to deliver and
attend to the civilians that have been a victim to this,” said Almendras.
The NDRRMC yesterday put the
overall death toll from Pablo at 740 and 890 missing. The typhoon struck
Mindanao on December 4 with monster winds of up to 200 kilometres per hour,
flattening farmlands, destroying houses and buildings, and sparking landslides
and flash floods.
Almendras said the United States
sent an aircraft to conduct high altitude reconnaissance operations and
Indonesia, a Navy vessel to help search for some 300 fishermen in 50 boats
missing at sea.
If the missing do not turn up
alive, the toll of lives from Pablo could exceed the 1,200 killed by Tropical
Storm “Sendong” when it slashed across Mindanao a year ago.
The United Nations has issued a
global appeal for US$65 million to help the Philippine government provide
assistance to 5.4 million people affected by the typhoon.
Very much in control
Segovia likewise dismissed
reports of mobs storming relief distribution and people rioting to get
supplies.
“I’ve been there, I was there
during the first delivery in Baganga,” he said, referring to the town in Davao
Oriental where Pablo made landfall before dawn on December 4.
“I saw the relief goods on
trucks,” said Segovia, who was the military commander in Rizal when Tropical
Storm “Ondoy” hit Metro Manila in 2009 and left nearly 1,000 people dead.
Davao Oriental Gov. Corazon
Malanyaon was “very much in command of the situation,” he said, adding that the
rest of the officials there were “very well organised”.
“In fact, most of the province…
is doing well in terms of relief operations. I personally talked to the doctors
and I saw—they expressed no problems. They need more medicines but on emergency
situations, they are able to go through their business,” Segovia said.
“I would say that the people of
these devastated areas are very resilient, they are very patient, and as we go
through with this disaster, we need more delivery of relief goods to assure our
people that we are attending to them. Both the government and the private
sectors are cooperating in this endeavour,” he said.
Presidential spokesperson Edwin
Lacierda said Soliman had denied that the Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD) failed to bring relief goods to some areas such as the worst-hit
village of Andap in New Bataan and uphill areas of Davao Oriental.
“All municipalities in Compostela
Valley and Davao Oriental have already been reached, including the elevated
areas,” Lacierda said.
He said Soliman was in Compostela
Valley to personally oversee the relief operations.
But President Aquino himself, in
a speech at the awarding ceremonies for the Philippine Quality Award in the
Palace yesterday, appeared to contradict Soliman’s pronouncement.
“There are still some isolated
communities that we are having difficulty in penetrating due to weather and due
to the closure of various roads due to landslides,” the president lamented.
Restored bridges
“We have made available the use
of our Navy ships, [which were] also augmented by the Coast Guard. During the
visit of Secretary Manuel Roxas, he ordered the utilisation of fishing vessels
to augment the ship-to-shore and some short trips by sea to deliver necessary
relief goods,” Segovia said.
He said that efforts were also
focused on the hardest hit towns of Baganga, Cateel and Boston, all in Davao
Oriental.
Baganga was the “most isolated”
town because of destroyed bridges, Segovia said. One bridge on the Cateel road
had been repaired but another going to Mati would take a long time to repair.
He said an alternate route had been found through Compostela.
“The first shipload of goods
coming from the provincial government of Mati landed in Baganga because that
was the most isolated. Cateel and Boston were initially delivered relief goods
coming from Surigao del Sur,” he added.
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