Evardone asks Aquino to set up relief ops center for Eastern Samar

By: Gil C. Cabacungan - 11 years ago

Rep. Ben Evardone INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone has appealed to the Aquino administration to take the reins in disaster-stricken areas in his province as municipalities and barangays have virtually collapsed from the sheer lack of resources and as the victims’ self-preservation instincts take over.

“We need additional police and army personnel to beef up security. We need to set up a separate command center different from the one in Tacloban City to make sure the needs of victims in our province are met directly and swiftly. If necessary, I appeal to the national government to take over operations of local government units (LGUs) in the relief and rehabilitation. The LGUs have broken down, the task at hand is just way beyond their capacity,” said Evardone in a phone interview.

Evardone noted that all attention has so far been fixed on Tacloban City even though Eastern Samar towns, specifically Guiuan and Basey, were also hammered with equally deadly force by “supertyphoon Yolanda” (international name Haiyan) last Friday morning. “There is nothing but debris in many of our towns. The death toll is unimaginable,” said Evardone.

By setting up a separate command center for Eastern Samar, Evardone said the province could get “separate attention” for its own requirements. He said town leaders have had to go to Tacloban City to make contact or appeal to authorities for help and get relief goods.

“The diversion of goods to Tacloban City is causing undue delay to our own needs. We hope the telecommunication companies also fix our communications lines and the government fix the roads. A lot of towns are still isolated, including island-barangays such as Homonhon, where no local or national authority have reached them yet except for a few food drops in some areas,” said Evardone.

Evardone also appealed to the government to act swiftly because the lack of food and water haa led to a breakdown in order as evidenced by reports of widespread looting.