DAVAO CITY—Mayor Rodrigo Duterte returned to this city from a humanitarian mission in Tacloban City with tales of horror, saying the people had been left on their own by village and city officials.
When Duterte left for Tacloban, some people here sent him a list of names to find out if they are safe.
The mayor, however, said he failed to find them or anyone to ask for information about the people on the list.
There was no local government to ask from, he said. “There was no semblance of a barangay (village),” he said.
“They were overwhelmed by their own dead, the barangays were not functioning anymore,” said Duterte.
“All you see are people walking aimlessly on the streets, like zombies, looking for food,” he added.
“I think God was somewhere else when the typhoon hit,” said Duterte.
After seeing the extent of the devastation, Duterte said what should have been declared in Tacloban is a state of emergency, not just a state of calamity.
“The state of calamity is not enough, it has to be a state of emergency because there is no local government functioning anymore,” he said.
‘All are dead’
“The police, the army, the social worker, all of them have their dead,” he said. “No city government is functioning,” he added.
Duterte, who turned over
P8 million worth of relief goods to areas hit by Supertyphoon “Yolanda,” recalled seeing a policeman, still in his uniform, among the dead that lay unclaimed on the road.
He had ordered a team of relief workers and rescuers to bring medicines to Tacloban by land on Saturday. The team arrived in Tacloban on Monday after hacking their way through fallen trees.
Duterte advised those who have relatives in Tacloban to “go to Tacloban, extract what is left of the family and bring them out of there because there’s nothing to eat in Tacloban right now.”
“Take them out of there, bring them outside, you can’t get anything from there, not even a candy,” said the mayor.
Mixed emotions
He said he was at a loss whether to cry or to shout in anger when he saw the devastation in Tacloban.
He also said that if he were in charge in Tacloban, he would have taken a more forceful stand against looting.
He said had he been there and had caught a looter, he would have shot the looter.
Duterte is known for his ironfist policy against crime in this city and had been accused of tolerating, if not supporting, a vigilante group that executes suspected criminals, particularly suspected drug dealers, gangland-style.—Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao
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