(UPDATE) Arroyo renews vow to ‘get to bottom’ of sea tragedy
President to visit typhoon-ravaged provinces
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 14:18:00 06/30/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will get a firsthand look Tuesday at the damage wrought by typhoon “Frank” (international codename: Fengshen) when she visits Aklan, the hardest hit in the Visayas region, and the site where the ferry with over 800 passengers and crew had sunk, as she promised victims’ families that the government would “get to the bottom of this terrible tragedy.”
"We have demanded a full accounting. Pananagutin natin lahat ng
napatunayang nagpabaya at naging sanhi ng pagkamatay ng marami nating kababayan, lalo na sa barko na nalunod [We will hold responsible all those who will be found liable for having caused the deaths of many our countrymen, especially in the ship that sank]," Arroyo said in a speech at the Philippine-Spanish Friendship day and the 109th anniversary of the siege of Baler in Baler, Aurora Monday.
"I express my condolence and would pledge to them that we will get to the bottom of this terrible tragedy," she added, referring to the MV Princess of the Stars, which sank with over 800 passengers and crew off Romblon last June 21 during the onslaught of Frank.
Arroyo might fly to Romblon to oversee a medical mission and distribution of relief items, Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said.
But before this, the President will fly to Digos, Davao del Sur to inaugurate the out-patient department of the provincial hospital and then attend the city's 41st founding anniversary.
At 12:45 p.m., the President is expected to arrive in Iloilo and conduct an aerial inspection of damaged areas before presiding over a National Disaster Coordinating Council-Cabinet level meeting at 1:30 p.m. at the
Conference Hall of the National Economic Development Authority building at Fort San Pedro, Iloilo City.
From Iloilo, Arroyo will fly to Aklan and oversee relief operations before flying to Romblon. Aklan was the worst-hit in Western Visayas, according to officials.
On Wednesday, Arroyo said she would also visit Cebu province, where most of the families of the ferry victims came from.
Dureza said the President was also planning to go to Sibuyan Island, near the site of the sunken ferry to see how search and retrieval operations were being carried out.
Arroyo will also attend the anniversary of the Philippine Air Force, which was moved from Villamor Air Base in Manila to Cebu.
Arroyo said the government would beef up its capability to predict typhoons by acquiring more Doppler Radars.
The weather forecasting instrument will be set up in Surigao del Sur, South Cotabato, Mactan, Tagaytay, Zambales, Cagayan province, Catanduanes, and Eastern Samar.
The two existing Doppler Radars in Baguio and Baler will be upgraded, she added.
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