System in place for aid delivery

HELP to typhoon-stricken towns are “overwhelming” but is bogged down by the traffic gridlock in roads leading to northern Cebu , Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale said.

“I am urging people to clarify sources of their reports saying that relief aid is not arriving. Honestly, the help is overwhelming. I set out from Danao early at 6 a.m. and traffic was heavy due to the number of trucks filled with relief goods headed to the north,” she said.

Magpale cited the “more efficient process” of town mayors in doling out food packs to their residents.

She said San Remigio Mayor Mariano Martinez and Bogo City Mayor Celestino Martinez Jr. adopted a monitoring system which specifies the number of food packs that have arrived in a particular barangay.

Barangays or sitios that received less compared to others will be the focus of relief operations when the next wave of relief goods arrive, she said.

Earlier, the Cebu provincial government partnered with the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) to consolidate the monitoring of relief operations to ensure the fair distribution of aid.

“The mayors told me that food has been given to those areas. I asked them to tell people to stop doing that because of its negative implications,” she said.

Last Saturday, Magpale personally handed over checks to municipal officials representing the Capitol’s typhoon aid. Among those who received aid was Mayor Ricardo Ramirez of Medellin town who earlier accused the vice governor of “snubbing” his town during her visit a day after the typhoon struck.

Magpale said she met Ramirez and personally gave him the check worth P2 million.

“I just told him (Ramirez) that this was based on the rapid assessment of the province’s disaster management council (PDRRMC) and Rafi. No biases here,” she said.

Aside from Medellin, the towns of Daanbantayan, San Remigio, Bogo City, Sta. Fe, Madridejos and Bantayan also received P2 million.

The towns of Poro, San Francisco and Tudela in Camotes island and Borbon, Tabuelan and Sogod received P1 million each. Correspondent Peter L. Romanillos