MANILA, Philippines?With corn and rice farms across Isabela drying up due to El Niño, Gov. Grace Padaca is appealing for aid for the hundreds of thousands of residents who are at risk of going hungry.

"We need help from the government and even from the international community. People think there's no calamity here,'' Padaca said in an interview by phone Monday night.

The El Niño-induced drought has cut a wide swathe of destruction to crops in the province since last year, estimated at P3.6 billion or nearly half of the P8 billion damage across the country.

For starters, the Department of Social Welfare and Development should send food provisions for the residents, and the Department of Health should deploy teams to check on their health condition, Padaca said.

The provincial government has given away five kilos of rice for each of the 200,000 affected households amounting to P25 million; P27 million worth of fuel subsidy to 27,000 farmers to help them operate their water pumps, and 50 water pumps.

"If the people get hungry, they'll become ill,'' Padaca said. "We're the producer of food, and now we don't have anything to eat.''

Isabela is the worst-hit province across the archipelago.

Meanwhile, activist priest Fr. Robert Reyes last Wednesday launched the "Run for Rain and Renewal'' to seek divine intervention for the drought-stricken province and spread word about El Niño.

He sprinted to public markets and schools in Ilagan, carrying a bamboo pole with two pails on both ends, one containing Holy Water, and the other, flyers about El Niño, according to reports.

"We're facing an environmental crisis, and we have to do a skillful and delicate balancing act,'' he said by phone.