ComVal town pays back, sends relief items, electricians to Leyte

MONKAYO, Compostela Valley—It’s payback time for this typhoon-devastated municipality, with residents and local officials initiating a relief drive to help Supertyphoon “Yolanda” survivors in the Visayas.

About six truckloads of goods, consisting of hundreds of sacks of rice and clothing, had been raised and were to be transported to Yolanda-devastated areas today, according to municipal information officer Joan Pintal.

“We felt the pain, suffering and needs of those in areas hit by Yolanda, and we wanted to help them,” Pintal said.

At least 100 people died and thousands more were left homeless when Typhoon “Pablo” (international name: “Bopha”) struck Monkayo town on Dec. 4 last year. It was among the areas in Compostela Valley, where over a thousand people were killed, hardest hit by the typhoon.

Officials here reckoned that people from Tacloban and Southern Leyte donated goods and linemen and electricians from Leyte Electric Cooperative were among the first ones to help restore power lines here that were toppled by Pablo’s howling winds.

“The local government will also send a team of electricians to Leyte province to return the favor,” Pintal said, adding that “this is a sort of paying them back for their help when we were hit by a similar calamity last year.”

Mayor Joselito Brillantes will lead the Monkayo relief team, which also includes soldiers and civilian volunteers tasked to assist in debris clearing operations.

On Friday, the Inquirer saw on the porch of the municipal hall some women volunteers sorting out and packing clothing and other relief items.

Pintal said the goods were donations from across the town’s 21 villages.

“We want to make sure the clothes included in the relief packs are really usable,” said Clarita Tancontian, a volunteer from the Monkayo Council of Women.

Tancontian said more donations were coming in and they were by the truckloads.

“Even those in far-flung puroks (communities) who are still recovering from last year’s typhoon are donating whatever Yolanda victims can use,” she said.

Tancontian said the relief drive had so far collected over 1,000 sacks of clothing and other relief items.

“We have to speed up our sorting activities to ensure that most of these will be ready before Monday,” she told the Inquirer, as she raised a child’s piece of clothing to examine if it contained any damage.

Pintal said the town government’s more than 300 employees and workers had also pitched in cash, from as low as P150 each to as high as P500 each.

She said they were looking at generating at least P300,000 cash that could be used to buy more relief items for Yolanda survivors.

Fe Maestre, Compostela Valley provincial spokesperson, said she learned that the Montevista town government also staged a relief drive and that whatever donations raised through it would be sent to the Monkayo contingent.

The Compostela Valley provincial government was also finalizing a plan to send relief to the Visayas, she said.

“Definitely, as per information, the provincial government is sending help maybe after [the Pablo disaster] anniversary on Dec. 4,” Maestre said. “The assistance will be more on postdisaster aftercare, like stress debriefing,” he added. Frinston L. Lim, Inquirer Mindanao