MANILA, Philippines - With no clean water, electricity, food and shelter, residents of flood-hit areas in Mindanao are grappling with a humanitarian crisis.
“We lack everything,” Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Vicente Emano told The STAR yesterday. “We don’t have electricity and drinking water. We are now appealing for bottled drinking water, food and medicine and relief goods.”
President Aquino will visit today the worst-hit areas – the cities of Cagayan de Oro, Iligan and Dumaguete, where the combined death toll is feared to exceed a thousand.
Emano said thousands of evacuees who are staying in three evacuation centers all lost their houses to the flashfloods spawned early Saturday by tropical storm “Sendong.”
He asked the national government to send embalmers, coffins and lime as unattended bodies recovered in the ongoing search and retrieval operations continue to pile up in the city’s funeral parlors.
“After running out of coffins, all the funeral parlors in the city have declined to accept more bodies, resulting in the piling up of the dead, like sacks of rice, in front of their offices,” Emano said.
Iligan City is also suffering similar problems, according to Brig. Gen. Roland Amerillo, deputy commander of the 1st Infantry Division and designated ground commander of the ongoing search and retrieval operations.
As this developed, mayors from Pampanga, a coffin-manufacturing province, answered Emano’s request as well as that of Iligan Mayor Lawrence Cruz, by donating more than 400 coffins to the two flood-stricken cities.
Col. Arnulfo Burgos, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman, said that the coffins will be transported today aboard a Philippine Air Force plane and the BRP Dagupan City of the Philippine Navy.
“As soon as the coffins coming from Pampanga are gathered at Villamor Air Base and at Navy headquarters along Roxas Boulevard today, these will be flown today while the rest will be loaded onto a Navy ship for Cagayan de Oro City,” Burgos said.
P-Noy to visit flood-stricken areas
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said President Aquino was supposed to fly to these areas last Sunday but was dissuaded by the Presidential Security Group due to bad weather conditions in the area.
“He wanted to visit as early as Sunday but the weather conditions, upon the advice of the PSG and the DND (Department of National Defense), they recommended that the visit be made tomorrow,” he said.
Lacierda said Aquino was in constant touch with Secretaries Jesse Robredo of the Interior and Local Government, Voltaire Gazmin of DND and Dinky Soliman of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), among others.
He was also constantly communicating with executive director Benito Ramos of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), who already left for Iligan and Cagayan de Oro over the weekend to check the extent of damage.
“So the President was very much aware of what was going on and he made sure that all relief efforts and all necessary efforts insofar as search and rescue are given to the people affected,” Lacierda said.
Local government officials will brief the President, who will be inspecting the damage as well as relief efforts on the ground.
“He will take some time to discuss also with the local government officials their concerns,” he said.
Binay wants victims relocated
Vice President Jejomar Binay has ordered local officials in Cagayan de Oro to relocate residents living along rivers and coastal areas.
“In housing, these areas are considered danger zones because they are prone to disasters. We must find a safe place for the residents to stay,” he said.
Binay distributed 2,880 bags of relief goods to Kagay-anons staying at the evacuation centers in Macasandig, City Central Elementary School and West City Elementary School.
He pledged to give 10,000 packs of relief goods in Cagayan de Oro and 5,000 in Iligan City and also ordered the Office of the Vice President to hold relief operations in Iligan.
The Vice President also went to funeral homes and extended cash assistance and his condolences to families who lost their loved ones due to the massive flooding.
His son, Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay, through the City Council, sent a total of P4 million in aid and relief to flood victims in Cagayan de Oro, Dumaguete and Iligan.
Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, on the other hand, is sending a six-man team to Iligan and Cagayan de Oro to provide technical assistance and donate P500,000 cash.
“More than the modest amount, the Albay Sendong Aid Mission brings with them the spirit of solidarity and sense of kinship between our people so critical in overcoming this period of distress,” Salceda said.
Bayanihan spirit is alive
As this developed, Philippine Airlines (PAL) Foundation executive director Carmen Sarmiento said PAL flights to Cagayan de Oro and Dipolog will carry free of charge disaster relief donations coming from reputable non-government organizations, private companies and religious groups.
The Lucio Tan Group kicked off its relief operations by sending bottled water from Asia Brewery to Cagayan de Oro via PAL. Its philanthropic arm, the Tan Yan Kee Foundation, is likewise ready to fly relief goods to disaster areas.
PAL will carry the relief goods as cargo on any of the five daily flights to Cagayan de Oro and five weekly flights to Dipolog using the Airbus A320 and A319 aircraft.
Priority will be given to lightweight and non-bulky essential items such as medicine and food.
Maynilad Water Services Inc. said it has sent donations consisting of 2,000 bottles of water and 300 five-gallon containers of potable water to the flood victims in Cagayan de Oro.
Maynilad and Smart Communications Inc. made the donations through the assistance of the Cagayan de Oro Water District, DSWD, DPWH, and the Philippine Air Force.
Ricky Vargas, Maynilad president and CEO, said that in the next few days, Maynilad and Smart will ship 2,000 pieces of 1.5 gallon containers of potable water to the affected families.
The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) has gathered nearly P1 million from BJMP personnel to be donated to those affected by the typhoon, according to bureau Director Rosendo Dial.
“Each BJMP personnel will be giving P100 for the calamity victims in response to Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo’s call for a massive pooling of donations for the victims,” said Dial.
He said even the BJMP Multi-Purpose Cooperative (MPC), the BJMP Mutual Benefit Association, Inc. (MBAI), and the Philippine National Police Academy Alumni Association, Inc. (PNPAAAI) have committed support for the cause.
“All donations will be sent to Cagayan de Oro daily to augment whatever assistance they need,” said Community Relations Office chief Xavier Solda.
The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) also mustered P1 million in voluntary contributions from its employees and their 19 attached agencies, as well as savings of the department and its line agencies, for donation to the victims.
Transportation Secretary Manuel Roxas II has directed the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) and the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) to assist in the immediate delivery of relief goods, medical supplies and other critical cargoes to affected areas.
Everyone’s concern
At the Senate, Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. appealed to his fellow senators and colleagues in the film industry to extend their own assistance to distressed countrymen in the affected areas.
Revilla, chairman of the Senate committee on public works, said he will personally visit Cagayan de Oro City to distribute relief goods and to inspect the infrastructure damaged by the typhoon.
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, who visited Cagayan de Oro last Sunday along with Vice President Binay, also appealed for donations, noting the shortage of wooden coffins and embalmers to attend to all the bodies, which have accumulated in funeral parlors and other open areas in the province.
“If a big city like Cagayan has a shortage of coffins, what more in other areas such as Iligan? We appeal also if other provinces can help in augmenting the supply of coffins,” Pimentel, a native of Cagayan, said.
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma appealed to all Filipino faithful to donate to the victims.
Archbishop Palma said this is the season when Filipinos demonstrate that they are one with their brothers and sisters who experienced the tragedy.
He also urged his fellow bishops to hold a second collection and send the money to the Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro and the Diocese of Iligan.
Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle issued a circular yesterday instructing all its parish priests, rectors of shrines and chaplains under the archdiocese to have a second collection to help the dioceses of the two cities.
CBCP-National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace (Nassa) chairman Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo said that they intend to call on the International Caritas to raise funds for the flood victims. They would also tap the Alay Kapwa fund.
Iligan Bishop Elenito Galido said the flood victims who are housed in evacuation centers are in need of blankets, slippers, underwear, medicine, mosquito nets, water, canned goods and rice.
To those who wish to help, they could send their donations to BDO bank account no. 312-008-7526 under the name Roman Catholic Bishops of Iligan. – With Jose Rodel Clapano, Delon Porcalla, Rainier Allan Ronda, Rhodina Villanueva, Evelyn Macairan, Christina Mendez, Rudy Santos, Mike Frialde, Celso Amo, Cet Dematera, John Unson - By Jaime Laude (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)
