Muntinlupa still reeling from ‘Glenda’

The Muntinlupa city government still have its hands full with major repair jobs in the aftermath of Typhoon “‘Glenda,” with P36 million allotted so far to restore major public facilities, including those used as evacuation centers.

“You’d be surprised. In the Sports Complex, for example, almost all the glass (windows) were shattered as well as the area there that we use as an evacuation center. We can’t use the Muntinlupa City Technical Institute because all the roofs were torn off, and at the Sagip shelters the roofs were almost completely gone,” said Tez Navarro, the city’s public information officer.

The Muntinlupa Engineering Department and the City Architects Office on Friday said the typhoon, whose 150-kph winds lashed Metro Manila on July 16, required the following funding for infrastructure repairs: P11.2 million for schools, P1.5 million for daycare centers, P215,000 for health centers, P5.1 million for covered courts, P1.2 million for streetlights and posts, and P17.5 million for other government structures and facilities.

Navarro said more money was allotted for the repair of streetlights and posts than for health centers because the latter mostly sustained partial damage, whereas many posts were toppled by the storm, like those in the New Bilibid Prison compound and in the Sucat and Tunasan areas.

Electricity was fully restored in Muntinlupa only last week while Internet service had yet to return to some parts of the city, she added.

Among the damaged campuses, the worst were Lakeview and Sucat elementary schools where students had since been forced to hold classes in makeshift rooms constructed by the local government, Navarro said. Kristine Felisse Mangunay