SAVING LIVES Rescue teams from the Quezon Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office and the city government of Lucena, along with personnel of the Philippine Air Force, seek out residents of Barangay Kanlurang Mayao after widespread flooding hit the city on Sunday when Typhoon “Aghon” battered southern Luzon. —photo courtesy of Quezon Provincial Government
MANILA, Philippines — The national government has allotted up to P3 billion for relief efforts in areas affected by Typhoon Aghon (international name: Ewiniar), President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Monday.
The President said the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) had already extended humanitarian assistance worth P1.2 million to residents displaced by the storm as it swooped down Luzon over the weekend, following its landfall in Eastern Samar on May 24.
READ: Aghon intensifies into severe tropical storm; Signal No. 3 up in eastern Quezon
“We have distributed more than P1.2 million in humanitarian assistance, and had readied more than P3 billion as standby funds [for] prepositioned goods and stockpiles to ensure a quicker and more expansive delivery of assistance for our people affected by Typhoon Aghon,” Marcos said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday.
The DSWD and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported on Monday that Aghon has so far injured seven people and affected more than 19,000 others as it battered the Bicol, Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) and Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan) regions. On Sunday at least three people, including a 7-month-old baby, were also reported killed in Quezon province.
“We can anticipate that our agencies will be ready to provide support to each affected community to ensure that they are safe and are in a good state,” the President said.
Coordination with LGUs
Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao, the DSWD spokesperson, said about 8,800 residents were displaced by the typhoon, with about 2,500 families relocating to evacuation centers. The NDRRMC, on the other hand, placed the number of displaced at 5,343.
The tally of evacuees was much higher at the local level.
Dumlao said humanitarian assistance was extended to affected communities in the provinces of Marinduque, Oriental Mindoro, Albay, Camarines Sur and Sorsogon.
“We were informed that the shipment of 5,000 food packs had also reached Infanta town in Quezon province [on Monday], in addition to what we have already reported,” she said at the “Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon” press briefing, adding that the DSWD is coordinating with the local government units (LGUs) to ensure the availability of food packs among the residents.
Dumlao reported further that 615 families had been displaced in Laguna and Quezon, while 290 families in Marinduque had taken refuge in the homes of relatives and friends.
The DSWD has also assisted 465 displaced families in the provinces of Eastern Samar, Northern Samar and Samar, she said, adding that the DSWD has also distributed nonfood items such as hygiene kits and mattresses.
The agency is also coordinating with the Department of Health regarding medicines that displaced residents may need.
Dumlao urged these residents to get in touch with the social welfare offices of their local governments or with the DSWD field offices for any other assistance that they might need.
“We are here to provide augmentation support to the local government units to ensure these forms of assistance would be provided,” she said.
Fatalities
In Quezon, police reported that a baby boy and his mother were in their shack atop a fish cage in Tayabas Bay at Barangay Punta in Padre Burgos town on Sunday, at the height of the storm.
As huge waves struck their shelter, the child fell into the water and drowned.
Four fishermen spotted the infant’s body in the waters off Barangay Ilayang Polo in Pagbilao town around 11 a.m. on Monday. The mother survived the storm’s onslaught.
In Lucena City, a 14-year-old boy was sleeping in the family home in Barangay Ibabang Iyam in the wee hours of Sunday when a palm tree fell on the house. Police said the boy, who had a wound in the abdomen, died instantly.
In Barangay Sampaga, San Antonio town, a 50-year-old farmer was sleeping alone inside his nipa hut when a huge acacia tree was uprooted and hit the hut on Sunday morning. The farmer also died on the spot.
At least 1,250 families, or 5,607 people, had to flee their flooded homes in several barangays in Lucena City, the provincial capital of Quezon. Lucena had been placed under a state of calamity on Monday.
The evacuees stayed in schools, barangay halls, evacuation centers, and the Quezon Convention Center in Lucena. But most of them returned home by Monday.
In the entire province, 3,638 families or 15,000 people from the 39 towns in Quezon, apart from Tayabas City and Lucena City, were evacuated.
“We’re still gathering data on the number of destroyed houses. Our rapid damage assessment and needs analysis are still ongoing,” Janet Vargas Gendrano, chief of Lucena’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, told the Inquirer.
‘A taste of La Niña’
Henry Buzar, former head of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council in Quezon, described the impact of Aghon as “a taste of La Niña 2024.”
He said “no typhoon had brought such damage, creating a river-like cascading flood entering our homes” in University Village, a subdivision in Barangay Ibabang Dupay.
Quezon Gov. Angelina Tan ordered all local officials to reach out to the typhoon victims and bring them relief goods, food packs and other essentials.
Landslides were reported in parts of Aurora province. Elson Egargue, chief of the Aurora Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, said the Dingalan-Umiray Road, also known as Sapio Road, in Barangay Butas na Bato was temporarily closed after a landslide struck the area. But clearing operations eventually opened the road to motorists.
Small landslides were also reported at Barangay Umiray in Dingalan town and Barangay Zabali in the provincial capital of Baler.
But Egargue said Aghon did not cause major damage to agriculture and infrastructure in the province.
He said all major roads remained passable and the power supply was stable, although there were power interruptions in some parts of the province.
Casualties, damage
According to the NDRRMC, there were four casualties in Legazpi, Albay; two in Mercedes, Camarines Norte; and one in Santa Magdalena, Sorsogon. All were injured by uprooted and fallen trees.
A total of 19,373 people or 8,465 families were affected in the regions of Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol and Eastern Visayas, the agency said.
Seven roads were impassable to vehicles in Central Luzon, Calabarzon and in Bicol, where operations in three of the region’s seven airports were suspended.
Aghon is the first storm to hit the country this year. It was classified as a severe tropical storm when it first made landfall in the country on Friday and was reclassified into a typhoon by Sunday.
According to the Monday afternoon bulletin by weather bureau Pagasa, Aghon was heading northeastward over the Philippine Sea and may leave the Philippine Area of Responsibility by Wednesday afternoon or evening.