Yolanda survivors in Tacloban to get cash from ATM Tuesday

TACLOBAN CITY—Starting Tuesday, typhoon survivors here will finally be able to get cash from automated teller machines (ATMs).

Four mobile ATMs will be operated starting Tuesday at the Land Bank of the Philippines branch in Barangay (village) Sangkahan, according to Imelda Laceras, Department of Budget and Management regional director.

Laceras said the ATM machines would arrive Monday on C-130 military planes—two each from Manila and Cebu— and would be ready for public use by tomorrow.

Banks in this city have been closed since Nov. 7, a day before Supertyphoon “Yolanda” ravaged the city.

Laceras said the ATM machines would be guarded by soldiers and policemen but it was not yet clear if the operations of the ATM would be on a 24-hour basis.

Electricity, however, remained down, with officials of Leyte II Electric Cooperative Inc. reporting they were still undergoing massive clearing operations and had yet to set the date when they could restore power.

At the meeting of Task Force Yolanda presided over by Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, he said the national government remained committed to helping Tacloban City and the rest of Leyte and Samar provinces.

“The President will not abandon you,” Roxas said.

Mobile assets for relief

Jet Velarmino, head of Task Force Yolanda, reported that as of Sunday, a total of 1,600 personnel from the Armed Forces of the Philippines had been deployed for manpower support and security for personnel delivering relief stocks to victims.

Besides its existing flatbed trucks in the province, a 22-vehicle convoy from Bayanihan 2 would arrive soon.

Velarmino said the convoy was bringing in relief stocks and personnel.

The plan is to provide one truck per town in Leyte dedicated to the distribution of relief items, he said.

Velarmino also reported that Sultan Kudarat Gov. Pax Mangudadatu had brought in a convoy of 14 trucks carrying relief stocks that had been intended for Guiuan town, Eastern Samar province, but these were instead diverted to Ormoc City, also in Leyte.

Ormoc serves as the hub of relief operations on the western side of Leyte, while Guiuan serves victims in Eastern Samar.

Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman earlier said that transporting relief stocks to many towns of Leyte and Samar was still a challenge.

“We still have to help them get more trucks so that they can get more goods,” she said.

There were also 20 trucks from Surigao City that were earlier incorporated into the distribution chain, according to Roxas.

Road clearing

For road clearing and cleanup operation, a total of 24 trucks in Tacloban City, 16 in the rest of the province, and four in Samar province have been deployed by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

The DPWH and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority have also deployed payloaders, backhoes and craters all over Eastern Visayas.

Various encouraging updates were reported at the briefing.

The Department of Labor and Employment is ready to roll out its emergency employment program for survivors and asked to partner with local government units (LGUs) for implementation.

The labor department will also offer, starting Monday, free overseas calls for victims wanting to contact their families and relatives abroad, while the Department of Trade and Industry will deploy rolling stores that sell basic commodities.

According to the Department of Health, seven hospitals are now operational with the help of international partners, and one tent hospital in the Tacloban airport.

The briefing ended with local officials thanking the national government and international donors for spearheading relief efforts on the ground.

Leyte Gov. Dominic Petilla said the situation in the province had “started to normalize.”

“It’s peaceful now. It’s very easy now to start rebuilding, to start all the operations that we’re about to undertake. And it may not be perfect, but we’re [getting help from the national government]. Let’s help each other,” he said.

The city administrator, lawyer John Tecson Lim, likewise thanked Roxas and President Aquino, conveying the message from Mayor Alfred Romualdez that the city government would cooperate with the national government.

He said Romualdez was already looking into the “recovery process” to start rebuilding the city.

Team effort

Roxas said the whole operation was a team effort.

“You can count on President P-Noy (Aquino). His whole government will not let you down—both the city and the people. We in the national government are setting up systems—not the knee-jerk and random [approach]; not [a system] that gives you something now, but you’ll have nothing tomorrow. The system we’re setting up is something that people can depend on every day,” he said.

He said the government would continue with the “rice brigade,” a scheme to deliver sacks of rice to every municipality, via the local government unit, daily.

Some 260 sacks of rice have been given to Leyte and the allocation per LGU will increase as more supplies come in, he said.

Roxas likened the whole relief distribution operation to a “conveyor belt,” saying that people had no more reason to feel “stress and anxiety.”

“Every day, the [victims] will expect rice and food packs to arrive,” he said.

The next phase is “normalization,” when the government encourages the private sector to come in, he said.

Originally posted: 9:24 pm | Sunday, November 17th, 2013

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