Storm evacuees moved to Aguinaldo

POWER NAP FOR THE WEARY After enjoying coloring books to heal their wounded psyche and packed meals to restore their starved bodies, these two young survivors of Supertyphoon “Yolanda ” get some much-needed sleep at Villamor Air Base on Thursday. JOAN BONDOC

After using Villamor Air Base for more than a week, the government has designated Camp Aguinaldo as the new processing center for evacuees flown in from typhoon-ravaged Tacloban City and eastern Visayan towns.

Philippine Air Force (PAF) spokesperson Col. Miguel Ernesto Okol on Thursday said space constraints at Villamor prompted the transfer. “We can handle 500 to 600 evacuees (at a time), but yesterday there were about 1,000. We can’t handle them all.”

“We expect that in the next few days there will be more people arriving. It’s better that they be processed in Camp Aguinaldo because most of the decision-makers are already there,” Okol told reporters.

Storm evacuees started arriving at Villamor in Pasay City onboard C-130 planes Tuesday last week. As their numbers grew, so did the number of relief volunteers setting up help booths and tents near the air base grandstand. The Pasay City government also set up a tent city at Villamor Elementary School for a limited number of evacuees.

Some 2,000 evacuees had been brought to Aguinaldo in Quezon City as of Thursday night. They were served a meal of dumplings, ground pork, taho and arroz caldo.

They included Sharon, 26, who became teary-eyed as she recalled how she, her husband and their children held on to a tree as the storm surge unleashed by “Yolanda” wiped out her entire neighborhood in Barangay Palo, Tacloban. They later walked for five hours just to reach Tacloban airport.

But apparently due to lack of coordination, the transfer to Aguinaldo started on a sour note on the part of some volunteers.

The decision surprised and upset the organizers behind “Oplan Hatid,” a group that had been providing free rides for evacuees who wish to reach their families upon arrival at Villamor.

“We are being kicked out of Villamor. Yes, all of us,” Junep Ocampo said in a Facebook post late Wednesday.

“We’re being shut down. Not just Oplan Hatid, but the entire relief effort, I’m told. I’m too upset to get into details, but in a nutshell, by 12 noon tomorrow, all evacuees will be transferred by government bus to Aguinaldo. What they plan for them there, I do not know. Nobody does. All I know is that they don’t need our help. The government, that is, not the survivors,” he said.

In another message, Ocampo blamed the transfer on a supposed “turf war” between the PAF and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

“You see, since Day 1, there has been a turf war between these two agencies. The turf war has led to confusing and arbitrary changes in rules and policies, making it difficult for volunteers and those who want to volunteer to help the survivors of Yolanda,” he said.

But on Thursday morning, James Deakin, also of Oplan Hatid, said his group was still willing to reorganize Oplan Hatid from Camp Aguinaldo, but that local governments should start pitching in and eventually take over.

Also on Thursday, another volunteer said her group had a quarrel with “a general’s wife” at Villamor who wanted the volunteers to leave their tent.

“We were shocked because she shouted at us and said that if we can’t follow instructions, we’re not needed here anymore,” said the volunteer, who asked not to be named for security reasons.

Addressing the volunteers, Okol stressed: “Our appeal is (for people) to be patient. We will just replicate what you are doing here (at Villamor). Instead of fetching people from Villamor, they will be fetched from Aguinaldo.”

The PAF official said his office had already taken the contact numbers of the volunteer organizers for better coordination.

He also gave a hotline— 8535023—for volunteers and related concerns.