Benguet cop chief sacked due to high toll

THE BENGUET police chief has been sacked due to the high number of casualties and the lack of preparation in the province during the onslaught of Typhoon “Lando” (international name: Koppu).

Interior Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento relieved Senior Supt. David Lacdan on Wednesday.

The number of fatalities in Benguet shot up from only two by Wednesday morning to 11 by Wednesday afternoon, bringing the total number of reported deaths nationwide from 26 to 35 within the day.

The Philippine National Police spokesperson, Chief Supt. Wilben Mayor, said in a press briefing that Lacdan’s relief would “serve as a warning” to other police officers tapped for disaster response.

“The PNP already established standard operating procedures when it comes to disasters. We have a disaster incident management task group, and it is expected from the police to be proactive,” Mayor said.

In a press briefing at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) Executive Director Alexander Pama reported 35 typhoon-related deaths in Regions I (Ilocos), II (Cagayan Valley), III (Central Luzon), IV-A, (Calabarzon), Metro Manila, and Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR).

NDRMMC spokesperson Mina Marasigan, in an earlier press briefing, said 907,267 people were still in evacuation areas in Regions I, II, III, IV-A, Metro Manila, and the Cordillera Region as of Wednesday morning.

More than P17 million worth of assistance has been provided by the social welfare department and local government units to areas affected by the typhoon, she said.

 ‘Zero casualty’

Malacañang acknowledged its failure to meet its “zero casualty” goal following the devastation caused by Lando, which has weakened to a tropical storm.

Communication Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., however, said “although the goal is admittedly a formidable challenge, there are many local government units at the provincial, city or municipality level that have succeeded in preventing loss of lives through diligent efforts.”

In an e-mail to the Inquirer, Coloma said “in adopting the goal of zero casualty, government is emphasizing its determination to protect the lives and ensure the safety of all citizens and residents against the vicissitudes of natural calamities.”

He said that “through postdisaster risk assessment activities, lessons learned at the ground level are conveyed to the national agencies and shared with stakeholders.”

Asked about the lessons learned from Lando, President Aquino told reporters in Cabanatuan City, where he led a relief distribution mission early this week, that “the first thing that we didn’t take for granted is the capacity of the local government units.”

Prepositioned

“The secretary of the interior and local government actually called up all the governors in the projected path of the typhoon to ascertain their amount of preparation and to ascertain also deficiencies they have that we could fill up while we had time to prepare for all of this,” he said.

The President reported that relief supplies had been “prepositioned in bigger facilities of the Department of Public Works and Highways. They have warehouses that are obviously not made of flimsy materials because they were built by the department in charge of all government infrastructure.”

“So their ability to withstand the elements was also strengthened,” he said.

He said communication “has also improved.”  But everything, he said, is “still a work in progress.”

The international organization, Save the Children, has launched an emergency response system targeting 8,000 households in areas worst hit by Lando. With a report from Jocelyn R. Uy