Cargo trucks, volunteers and housing materials needed

MORE cargo trucks, volunteers and construction materials are needed to sustain the relief efforts to typhoon victims in Cebu, Tacloban City, Isabel, Guiuan and Ormoc City.

“I hope there are more cargo trucks available to deliver 151,189 family food packs to these areas,” Aileen Lariba, information officer of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said over the weekend.

More than P37 million was spent by government and donors for food and P600,000 for water, Lariba said.

She said they also need more than 1,000 volunteers to work two- to four-hour shifts in repacking relief goods.

Lariba said they listed more than 3,000 typhoon victims in Cebu.

The Philippine Navy said another 2,500 typhoon victims from Tacloban City are scheduled to arrive today at 8:00 AM. Lariba said that they are sheltered in different evacuation sites.

She believes that these typhoon victims will go home after things will be get better in Tacloban.

“Some of them are professionals and have relatives too in other parts of the country,” she said.

Lariba said the DSWD will coordinate with the Department of Education (DepEd) on how to help school children affected by the typhoon.

Cebu Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale also urged people to donate housing materials to typhoon-stricken residents in northern Cebu so they can rebuild their homes.

“What we need now are galvanized iron sheets, nails and other materials. That is our focus after sending out relief goods to people in the north,” she said. Magpale said provincial officials are already anticipating a shortage of building materials in Metro Cebu in the following weeks.

She said she met with representatives of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce in anticipation of this shortage. /Michelle Joy L. Padayhag, Correspondent with Correspondent Peter L. Romanillos