Aid lack shows in Samar folk begging for food

A young man holds up what could be a sign of desperation among the people of Quinapondan in Eastern Samar, one of the areas that suffered the brunt of Supertyphoon “Yoland” but which has received little attention from the government. RAFFY LERMA

QUINAPONDAN, Eastern Samar—Children lined the highway here, begging for food and other provisions, and exposing the shortage of relief that the government and other sectors have been pouring into typhoon-ravaged areas of this region.

Children outstretched their arms for alms from passing motorists while others held placards that said, “Please help us, we need food and water.”

While children did the begging at the roadside, their parents attended to their shattered houses. Many tried to rebuild a makeshift shelter from the scattered debris of torn roof sheets and broken lumber.

“It’s been four days since the last time we received a pack of rice and noodles. The convoys of relief goods just passed by,” said Pedro Gacap, 54, of Barangay Alang-Alang here.

Placards in front of damaged houses said: “Why Guiuan only? We’re victims, too.”

Many villagers here believed relief efforts had been focused on Guiuan, the first town to suffer the brunt of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” on Nov. 8.

But even as relief has been pouring into the hub of government relief operations through Guiuan airport, residents there complained that relief had been scarce.

In Barangay 6, a fishing village in Guiuan, residents said the last time they received their packs of relief items, each with 2 kilograms of rice and three packs of noodles, was on Monday.

Bad rice

The quality of government rice being given out was so bad it made them throw up, they said.

“We see these large planes landing almost every 10 minutes and we know they are bringing in relief goods. We do not feel excited anymore. Nothing is coming to us anyway,” said fisherman Allan Lanzaderas, 30.

He and other men in their community near a local fish port have also been been trying to rebuild their houses from scrap materials smashed by Yolanda’s gusts and storm surge.

“We also wonder why the relief packages have to be repacked. We are told an original package contains 6 kg of rice and six pieces of canned goods, but we get only 2 kg of rice and three cans when these reached us,” said Pablito Baslot Jr.

But relief operations officials said they had been trying their best to reach all those who took a hit from Yolanda and they had not received any reports of shortage.

“If there are complaints, then [residents] must ask their local leaders because we turn over to them the relief packages,” said Elbert Fabian Lagrimas, team leader of the relief distribution operations in Guiuan.

The operations hub here has assumed responsibility in delivering relief goods to about 54,000 households in the province’s 13 towns as well as Marabut town in Western Samar.

Busy airport

The Guiuan airport has been busy with US and Swedish Air Force planes delivering cargo and transporting people who want to leave the island for Cebu City and Metro Manila.

On Thursday, the airport was teeming with about 1,000 people, some of whom have been queuing for the past three days for a free plane ride and complaining of the shortage of food and other provisions.

“We have no house, no food, no water, everything. Even if we have some money, we have nowhere to buy goods. We cannot depend on relief goods alone and the worse part is, the relief packs do not have milk for our babies,” said Hajorda Talog of Barangay Sulangan.

Life in Guiuan and other typhoon-ravaged areas in Eastern Samar has been made even more difficult by the rising costs of basic commodities, mainly gasoline and other petroleum products, triggered by the lack of supplies.