Tolentino seeks private sector’s help to clear Maharlika Highway

Senate Majority Leader Francis “Tol” Tolentino seeks private sector help to clear Maharlika Highway of stalled vehicles to make way for trucks carrying relief goods for Kristine flooding victims.

MANILA, Philippines – Senate Majority Leader Francis “Tol” Tolentino called on the private sector on Saturday to help clear the Maharlika Highway of stranded vehicles stalled by deep flooding in San Fernando town in Camarines Sur, to make way for trucks carrying relief goods.

Tolentino said that the private sector’s help is very welcomed and appreciated in clearing the way, which could hasten the delivery of immediate relief goods for communities affected by severe flooding in the localities of Bicol’s catch basin area.

He particularly appealed to firms like construction companies with heavy equipment to volunteer their resources to clear the clogged portion of the Maharlika Highway, Asian Highway 26 (AH26), located in Camarines Sur, which traverses between the Bicol region and Metro Manila.

As of Oct. 26 in the morning, reports reaching the senator confirmed that the trucks carrying relief goods of institutions like the Philippine Red Cross, Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), and other civil society groups and networks are still stranded in Milaor town 15 km north of Naga City.

“I am appealing to the private sector, especially construction firms with heavy equipment, to help unclog the main artery going to and coming from Metro Manila, even one lane, to make way for the vehicles carrying relief goods to reach the survivors of the extensive and massive flooding in Camarines Sur,” Tolentino said in a statement.

Since Oct. 21, hundreds of vehicles that traveled south from Metro Manila to Bicol provinces, Visayas, and Mindanao, as well as other local vehicles stranded, have blocked the highway, clogging the way for relief operations.

Tolentino received a report from Mayor Cris Lizardo, who called him up and updated the senator on the massive flooding in the Bicol River Basin town of Minalabac in Camarines Sur province and the traffic situation on the Maharlika Highway.

“Maraming tulong, mayor, parating; marami nagpadala ng tulong at may mga nandiyan na, kaya lang hindi makadaan…yong (problema sa) accessibility, ang problema kung papano ede-deliver kasi barado nga iyong daan,” he assured Lizardo.

(There is lots of help coming, mayor; there are many who send aid, and many of them are there already, but the problem is they cannot pass through…there’s a problem in accessibility, the problem on how to deliver because the way is clogged.)

READ: Kristine dumps 2 months’ worth of rain, leaves 40 dead, towns flooded

The mayor told Tolentino that both ends between Milaor town and Naga City, about four kilometers long and still submerged in floodwaters as of Saturday morning, are clogged with vehicles going north and south of Bicol.

Lizardo described the extent of traffic on the diversion road in Naga City going north to Milaor town, where a marine soldier participating in the rescue operation could hardly squeeze himself between vehicles with his backpack.

The mayor said the vehicles were piling up on both ends of the flooded highway in anticipation of the receding floodwaters that cut the main artery between the Bicol region and the regions in the south and north going to the Philippine capital.