Senators express sympathy for ‘Pablo’ victims

Residents carry the coffin of a dead relative in New Bataan town, compostela province on December 6, 2012. Nearly 200,000 people are homeless and more than 475 dead after the Philippines suffered its worst typhoon this year, authorities said on December 6, reaching out for international aid to cope with the scale of the disaster. AFP/TED ALJIBE

MANILA, Philippines—Several senators have expressed their sympathy for the victims of typhoon Pablo (international name Bopha) and called on Filipinos to help the survivors get back on their feet.

“I deeply commiserate with the families who have lost their loved ones due to Typhoon Pablo. This tragedy should bring us together in offering prayers for the victims and all those affected,” Senator Loren Legarda said in a statement Thursday.

“More importantly, this disaster should serve as another lesson to us. The cold statistics on the dead and missing should bring us to the realization that we still need to do more to save our communities from the painful experience of losing to disasters,” she said.

As of Friday morning, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) recorded a total of 418 casualties, 445 injured and 383 missing from typhoon Pablo that ravaged the Visayas and Mindanao region.

Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan said in a Twitter post that he was “deeply saddened by the death & destruction wrought by Pablo. Let us do our share to ease the suffering of our kabayans (countrymen) in Mindanao.”

Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, who is from Cagayan de Oro city in Mindanao, one of the areas in the direct path of Pablo, previously issued a statement saying that he and his staff have cancelled their Christmas party in deference to the victims of the calamity.

“Let us live the true spirit of Christmas by foregoing parties or making them simple, so that we may be able [to] donate whatever we can to our needy countrymen ravaged by this typhoon,” Pimentel said.

He called for socio-civic groups and all those willing to give assistance to course their donations through his office in the Senate.

Legarda, the head of the Senate committee on climate change, called for local government units to improve their disaster mitigation measures.

“As we move to relief, recovery and reconstruction, we must bear in mind that it will not be enough to build people’s lives and communities to where they were before the disaster,” Legarda said.

“We need to rebuild communities with the confidence that we are not rebuilding the risks again; we need to ensure that reconstruction of homes and infrastructure will be in safer ground following sound construction standards; we need to soon re-start and create livelihoods; and restore normalcy in people’s lives with a stronger sense of hope and confidence for the future,” she said.