Life in Metro Manila slowly went back to normal on Wednesday as floodwaters receded and electricity was restored to areas affected by Typhoon Pedring, prompting evacuees to start returning to their homes.
Based on reports submitted by their officials, the cities of Manila, Navotas and Malabon appeared to be the hardest-hit areas in the metropolis.
Manila administrator Jesus Mari Marzan said that more than P200 million worth of infrastructure was damaged by Pedring while the city councils of Navotas and Malabon declared a state of calamity in their areas after hundreds of residents were left homeless by rampaging floodwaters.
Manila City Engineer Armand Andres said that on Roxas Boulevard alone, strong waves and floodwaters spawned by Pedring destroyed a portion of the seawall.
The damaged portion stretches from the area fronting Rajah Sulaiman Plaza all the way to Manila Yacht Club, he added.
Andres estimated that it would take around P30 million to repair the seawall.
He said that several statues and benches in the Baywalk area were either destroyed or missing.
“A statue in Rajah Sulaiman Plaza that was standing and pointing forward is now on its back, pointing to the sky,” one of Marzan’s staff told the Inquirer in Filipino.
Around 5,000 people from Isla Puting Bato, Baseco and Parola compounds in Tondo who left their houses at the height of Pedring’s fury remain in evacuation centers.
On Wednesday afternoon, evacuees staying at the Baseco covered court were visited by Miss Universe third runner-up Shamcey Supsup who distributed relief goods.
Earlier, the beauty queen dropped by Manila City Hall where she was given the key to the city by Mayor Alfredo Lim.
In Malabon, chief public information officer Bong Padua said that 4,545 people remain in the city’s evacuation centers.
Even with the improvement in the weather, the number of people seeking shelter was expected to go up since rescue operations were ongoing in the low-lying areas of Panghulo and Dampalit.
On Tuesday, strong rains caused the Malabon-Navotas and Tullahan Rivers to overflow, leaving 11 barangays (villages) in Malabon underwater—Potrero, Catmon, Tañong, San Agustin, Longos, Panghulo, Hulong Duhat, Dampalit, Tonsuya, Concepcion and Santulan.
In a phone interview, Navotas Mayor John Rey Tiangco said that he had asked the city council to declare a state of calamity in the city so that they could use the calamity funds to help the hundreds of residents left homeless by the typhoon.
“The problem here is not the flooding. It’s the people, they have nowhere to stay,” he told the Inquirer.
Tiangco said that as of 2 p.m., 1,677 families were in the 15 evacuation centers designated by the city government after their houses, which were built on stilts beside waterways, were destroyed by Pedring.
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will again ask a Makati court to allow it to take down billboards on Edsa and other major thoroughfares.
MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino said this was part of the agency’s preparations because another typhoon was expected to enter the country’s area of responsibility within the week.
“We will file another motion in view of the possible onslaught of the coming typhoon. And we hope this time, the court will act on it for the sake of public safety,” he said.
The MMDA earlier sought the court’s permission to remove tarpaulins on major thoroughfares in the metropolis before Pedring struck the country but the court did not issue any order.
Judge Elpidio Calis of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 133 had prevented MMDA and the Department of Public Works and Highways from tearing down billboards based on a petition filed by the Outdoor Advertising Association of the Philippines.
On Tuesday, a billboard frame fell on two cars and a bus, injuring two motorists in Makati City.
“If only the regulation that billboards should be resistant to winds as strong as 240 kilometers per hour [was followed], this incident would not have happened,” said Tolentino. “The intensity of winds brought by last Tuesday’s typhoon did not even reach that level but it managed to topple the structure.”
In Parañaque City, evacuees began to return to their homes as the weather improved Wednesday. At least 400 persons from Bulungan near Coastal Road, Tabon and Per Ville sought shelter in schools and covered courts on Tuesday.
In Barangay San Dionisio, most of the estimated 70 families who had spent the night in a gymnasium in the area went back to their houses Wednesday, according to communications officer Datu Farouk Adin.
The same was also true of the evacuees from Barangays Culi, Sucat and Cupang in Muntinlupa City, city information chief Omar Acosta said.
Sucat and Cupang are situated near the shore of Laguna de Bay while Culi is near Kabutulan Creek, one of the lake’s tributaries.
Meanwhile, Globe Telecom has set up Libreng Tawag stations in two evacuation sites for residents affected by the floods in Quezon City and Marikina so that they could get in touch with their families and friends. The free five-minute local calls and two-minute international calls will be made available to evacuees until they decide to return to their homes. The call stations are located at Nangka Elementary School in Marikina City and the gymnasium of Barangay Bagong Silangan in Quezon City.—With Jaymee T. Gamil, Tina G. Santos, Miko Morelos, Kristine Felisse Mangunay, Penelope Endozo and Niña P. Calleja