Cebu City mounts aid mission

A TEAM from Cebu City Hall went to towns in northern Cebu while another is leaving for Ormoc City today to extend help to people affected by supertyphoon Yolanda last week.

The group brought relief goods and extended medical services and clearing operations to the affected areas.

The team that will go to the towns of Medellin, San Remigio and Daanbantayan, headed by City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete and Markets Administrator Raquel Arce, will leave at 6 a.m. today.

The team headed by Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella left for Ormoc last night.

“First of all, we’ll establish an area in Medellin as our command center and base camp, then we’ll do courtesy call to the mayors,” Arce said. Arce initially visited the sites earlier this week.

The City Council earlier approved the allocation of P6 million to fund the assistance to be extended to northern Cebu towns.

Medellin and DaanBantayan each received P1 million while the towns of San Remigio, Bogo, Sta. Fe, Madridejos, Tabogon and Bantayan Island got P500,000. Borbon town got P200,000.

Councilor Mary Ann delos Santos said she will continue giving the P200,000 checks each to the towns of Pilar, San Francisco, Tudela and Poro in the island group of Camotes this weekend.

Ester Concha, head of Cebu City Hall’s Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) said two truckloads of relief goods will be brought to the three northern towns today.

Concha said five truckloads of relief goods were brought by the Ormoc team. “We also have five doctors, five nurses and three sanitary inspectors,” Labella said.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama will accompany the group to Ormoc where he’ll hand out P500,000 checks to Palompon and Isabel, Leyte, Labella said. Correspondent Jose Santino S. Bunachita