Mindanao, Visayas to have rainy Christmas

MTSAT ENHANCED IR Satellite Image for 1 a.m., 22 December 2011

There may be no good cheer on Christmas for survivors of Tropical Storm “Sendong.”

While no storm is in sight, monsoon rains at the weekend are likely to blanket wide areas of the country and trigger floods and landslides not only in Mindanao and the Visayas but also Luzon, particularly the Bicol region, weathermen said Wednesday.

As the tail end of the cold front moves southward, Visayas and Mindanao will experience cloudy skies with scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms, said Robert Sawi, weather division chief of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).

The rainshowers and thunderstorms will become widespread over the eastern section, and particularly intense in Mindanao on Christmas, he said.

“Our countrymen there should prepare because flash floods might occur during the weekend,” he said during a press conference.

On the other hand, a surge in the northeast monsoon (amihan) would bring light rain over the western and eastern sections of Luzon from December 21 to December 26, Sawi said.

This would become frequent over the Bicol region, and could cause floods and mountain slopes to collapse on December 24 and 25, he said.

“The northeast monsoon would dominate and affect most parts of Luzon, especially the eastern side,” he said.

Pagasa has cautioned fishermen in the coasts of Visayas and Mindanao against setting out to sea because of the big waves generated by strong northeasterly winds.

The northeast monsoon now sweeping the main island of Luzon with cold and dry air from Siberia and the tail end of the cold front would be the dominant weather systems affecting most parts of the country in the next four days.

Death toll tops 1,000

Six days after Sendong struck on Friday, rescuers were still fishing bodies in the waters off Cagayan de Oro City, according to Benito Ramos, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).

Ramos said that so far, 1,002 bodies had been recovered. Two-thirds of the fatalities were from Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City, which took the brunt of the flooding spawned by the storm.

“The number is still rising because we are continuously searching,” Ramos said in a phone interview from Cagayan de Oro. “We no longer count the missing because we’ve lost count.”

He said 90 percent of the bodies  recovered lately were fished out of the waters off Cagayan de Oro. “They’re right there at Macajalar Bay, on the beach. The bodies are floating at sea,” Ramos said.

According to Ramos, the death toll in Cagayan de Oro stood at 650. More than half of them have not been identified since they are already in an advanced state of decomposition. All of the 283 dead recovered in Iligan City were unidentified. The Iligan City government has held a mass burial for the unidentified victims.

Ramos said search and rescue operations had taken a toll on the rescuers, citing three policemen who drowned while saving lives. They were Senior Inspector Arnold Bustarde, Inspector Charlito Penullar and Senior Police Officer 1 Charlon Ednote. Another police officer remains missing.

“We just have to sustain it,” Ramos replied when asked how the NDRRMC would keep the search and rescue operations running. He said several fishermen had volunteered to join military personnel who are searching for possible survivors and bodies.

Relief coordination

President Benigno Aquino III has declared a state of national calamity in the disaster zone, to speed up relief and rehabilitation efforts and secure funding from international agencies.

Gwendolyn Pang, secretary general of the Philippine Red Cross, said that while food supplies were being met, agencies needed to coordinate support for psychosocial assistance, shelter and livelihood.

Pang pointed out that power and water services remained a problem.

“There is a risk of duplication and also gaps in humanitarian needs to be provided to victims,” said Pang.

The NDRRMC is to meet today to discuss the process of receiving and distributing humanitarian assistance under Executive Order No. 831, according to its operations chief, Edgardo Ollet.

The order gives the Department of Finance complete discretion to authorize tax and tariff exemptions for relief goods donated from abroad.

Ollet said the government had mechanisms in place for big disasters, but the rules just needed to be revised a bit to fast-track the entry of donations from outside the country. With reports from Leila B. Salaverria in Manila, and Cai Panlilio, Inquirer Mindanao