Local gov’t aid, coffins, water sent to typhoon victims

The Cebu City Council yesterday approved the release of P6 million as aid to victims of typhoon Sendong and sent 100 coffins to Cagayan de Oro, along with deodorizers to help bury the dead.

The official death toll in the massive flooding topped 1,000 while authorities said they lost count of how many more were missing in one of the worst calamities to hit Mindanao.

Friday’s storm, which unleashed flash floods in the middle of the night, caught most of the victims in their sleep, especially those near the Cagayan de Oro river.

“We’re vulnerable as well in Cebu City because many families still live near creeks,” said Alvin Santillana, head of the city’s disaster risk council.

Learning from Sendong’s disaster, he said the Cebu city government should hasten the removal of about 8,000 families remaining in the three-meter easement of waterways.

A survey is ongoing to determine exactly how many live on riverbanks and creeks, he said.

Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia will visit the calamity areas on Dec. 27 to turn over P5 million each in assistance from the provincial government to Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City and bring heavy equipment and personnel to help in clearing-up operations.

She asked for pledges from Cebu towns.  Asturias will given P100,000 while Liloan town pledged P200,000.

The Province of Cebu will also give  P1 million each to cities of Dumaguete and Tanjay in Negros Oriental which were hit by the tropical storm.

The Cebu City Council yesterday approved P3 million aid for Cagayan de Oro, P2 million for Iligan City, and P1 million for Negros Oriental, all sourced from an P11 million balance of calamity funds.

“We know that many people are giving in kind.  It’s better that we (in City Hall) given cash assistance which they could use for their rehabilitation efforts,” said Vice Mayor Joy Augustus Young.

Santillana heads a team that boarded a Suplicio Lines ferry to Cagayan do Oro with the coffins and relief goods.

The group includes four agents of the National Bureau of Investigation who will help in the disaster victim identification process.

“There were many lessons learned by the people who did not listen to national and local governments, but this is not the time to put the blame on them,” Benito Ramos, head of the Office of Civil Defense, told The Associated Press, adding that warnings by weather forecasters of an approaching storm went unheeded.

He said the government continues to be focused on retrieving the bodies, most of which are being pulled from the sea off Cagayan de Oro.
“We’ve lost count of the missing,” he said.

Several relief drives have been mounted by the private sector in Cebu, including a benefit concert scheduled on Christmas eve.

(See CDN’s  Donor’s Guide for relief operations on page 6)

At the Capitol, 80,000 bottles of mineral water were sent by batches by mineral water companies to Dumaguete and Tanjay cities in Negros Oriental and Cagayan de Oro and Iligan in northern Mindanao.

About 3,000 bags of rice, 200 cartons of sardines, 40 boxes of noodles and 40 boxes of medicines were sent by the Capitol to Cagayan de Oro.  They were shipped on vessels offered by Bob Gothong of Gothong Southern Shipping Lines.

In Congress, Speaker Belmonte asked each congressman to donate P20,000 for the victims.
This way they managed to raise P5.6 million, said Rep. Pablo John Garcia of Cebu’s 3rd district.

Garcia said his staff also donated part of their Christmas bonuses for the victims.

The Mandaue city government canceled its Christmas party to donate the P3-million budget to the cities of Cagayan De Oro, Iligan, Tanjay and Dumaguete.
Tanjay is a sister city of Mandaue.

“We can still celebrate Christmas through giving,” said Mayor Jonas Cortes. He said P1.5 million will go to Cagayan De Oro while the other half will be divided between Iligan and Tanjay.

Donation boxes were set up in police precincts in Cebu to accept donations in cash and kind.

The Police Regional Office (PRO-7) canceled its Christmas party to focus on relief operations.

No program was held.  Instead of a lechon on the table, a simple lunch was shared in different offices. The prizes intended for the party were donated instead for flood victims.

Alvin Santillana, head of the Cebu City Risk Reduction Management Council, made a quick trip to Cagayan de Oro on Tuesday to assess needs there.

He said the city needs drinking water and clothes for the children.

“The children are getting cold because they no longer have clothes to wear,” he said.

He said the first two floors of Cagayan de Oro’s new City Hall building was damaged by floods since the structure is located within the three-meter easement of the river.

The Cebu Pacific plane the team rode in was filled with bottled water donated by Cebuanos.

Deodorizers are needed to control the stench of decomposing bodies kept at the local sanitary landfill pending forensic identification and tagging.

The landfill is one to two kilometers away from a residential area.  /Reporter Candeze R. Mongaya  and  Correspondents Edison delos Angeles, Carmel Matus, Chito Aragon and Gabriel C. Bonjoc