MANILA: As the government struggles to deliver relief goods to starving typhoon victims, the problem of providing shelter to some 90,000 families is another monstrous task that needs to be addressed.
“We realised that we needed to support the food requirements of about 80,000 families, based on our calculation last Saturday. 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 them relief goods and shelter,” Secretary to the Cabinet Jose Rene Almendras said in a press briefing yesterday.
Present at the meeting were National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) executive director Benito Ramos, Eastern Mindanao Command (Easmincom) chief Lt Gen Jorge Segovia, and Capt Robert Emperad, chief of the Joint Task Group Sea/Maritime Rescue. Almendras said relief operation is not just about food but also shelter because the areas were so devastated.
“They started constructing bunkhouses (Tuesday). We’re going to accelerate that. We’re going to use the wood felled by the storm to build temporary shelter because we need to provide shelter for all these families,” Almendras said.
He said they knew food sourcing at the site would be very difficult given the devastation, and this was “precisely why part of the plan is a sustained relief operation” which the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) was putting together.
He said the calamity funds would be released immediately but there was no immediate rush for it because there were still stocks for distribution.
“But we do realise this is not something that can be finished... this week - or not even next week. The (relief) operation is not just about food (but also) shelter because (the areas are) devastated. This is going to be a long haul,” he said.
Almendras said he and Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman would go to Davao again tomorrow 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 President is to bring them back up on their feet and we are very serious about doing that,” he said.
Almendras said they already got calculations as to how many tons of food packs that must be produced. He said the DSWD is in charge of it while Segovia’s group would lead the search and rescue operations. He said their problem is not the quantity of goods but how to deliver it fast to the victims. He said they have to be more innovative in handling the logistics.
Segovia denied the situation had gone out of hand. He said the “rumours of mobs and rioting, and the lack of so many things (are) hardly true.” “I’ve been there, I was there during the first delivery in Baganga. I saw the relief goods on trucks. Except for minor incident involving the locals, there’s nothing,” he said.
“But the sheer number of typhoon victims overwhelmed our organisations - both the local government and the military. But we continue to attend to all these problems and try to find solutions to them. We have been very much supported by the national government and our general headquarters. God willing, we will be able to get through this,” he added.
Almendras said Segovia was designated by President Aquino to oversee a full-scale search and rescue operation while providing relief and rehabilitation for the victims. He defended the military from criticisms that it failed to do its part in helping the people.
“I think our uniformed personnel have done a fantastic job in Davao. 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,” he said.
The Palace official said the problem is so enormous that at one point Soliman was reported to have broken down.
“Some people have lost everything they have. They’ve lost their families, their houses, and we’ve lost whole communities - literally gone under mud or gone underwater. So I think this is really a good time for us to come together and help,” he said. Meanwhile, typhoon survivors in the town of New Bataan, Compostela Valley have to deal with the foul odor emitting from bodies that have yet to be retrieved from under the pile of logs and mud.
“The stench pervades the air because there are still victims whose remains have not been retrieved yet,” Compostela Valley Rep Maricar Zamora-Apsay said.
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