Help pours in from neighboring provinces for ‘Sendong’ victims

TAGUM CITY, Philippines—Despite having their own share of victims to attend to, officials and resident of Compostela Valley are extending a helping hand to the victims of Tropical Storm Sendong in northern Mindanao.

Before daybreak on Thursday, two dump trucks rolled out of the provincial capitol in Nabunturan town, bringing 200 sacks of rice and hundreds of boxes of bottled water, noodles, used clothing and medicines to the disaster-stricken people of Iligan City, according to Fe Maestre, the provincial information officer.

The aid is being given  even as more than a hundred families in several towns of Compostela Valley also suffered as Sendong cut a swath of devastation in the province while moving across Mindanao on Friday. Five people, most of them children, died in landslides in the hardest-hit municipality of Monkayo.

Gov. Arturo Uy said sending relief goods to northern Mindanao did not mean those in need back home were neglected.

“We immediately provided assistance to our constituents victimized by the storm. We have given basic provisions to the evacuees, especially to the 130 families in Monkayo. Food, clothing and temporary shelter, we provided already,” Uy told the Inquirer by phone.

Some 30 houses were damaged by floods and landslides in Monkayo.

Uy said the provincial government would also send relief goods to Cagayan de Oro City.

“These two areas suffered much. The damage in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan was so devastating. We are still fortunate here. We have more than enough so we opted to send help those who need it more,” said the governor.

In Maco town, also in Compostela Valley, soldiers from the army’s 71st Infantry Battalion and members of Youth for Peace volunteers weregoing around town, using loudspeakers to ask for foodstuff, used clothing and other relief goods for the storm victims in Northern Mindanao.

The “Alay Tulong at Dasal” relief drive,  which also involved the local parish and the local government unit of Maco, was able to raise a thousand bottles of water, 136 sacks of used clothing and several sacks of rice, according to Lt. Ben Ari Hernaez, 71st IB civil-military affairs officer.

These goods were then sent to the regional army headquarters of the 10th Infantry Division, in Davao City, Hernaiz said.

In Iligan City, more relief goods from neighboring provinces continued to arrive.

On Wednesday morning, a convoy of trucks loaded with relief goods from Zamboanga del Sur arrived in the city. Five of the trucks carried 100 white caskets.

According to Zamboanga del Sur Gov. Antonio Cerilles, the coffins were made by inmates of the provincial jail.

Cerilles said he was moved by the utter lack of coffins in the city in the wake of a mounting death toll.

Apart from the coffins, Cerilles also brought 30 medical personnel to attend to the needs of the evacuees.

He added that the provincial government  decided to cancel the Christmas party of its employees in sympathy with the victims of the floods in Iligan and Cagayan de Oro. And instead of the festivities, the provincial government is donating the money to the  flood victims.

From Davao City, Mayor Sara Duterte and her father, Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte visited Cagayan de Oro and Iligan on Wednesday, bringing with them several  trucks loaded with bottled water and relief goods. The Davao City officials also turned over cash assistance to their local counterparts.