President Aquino visits typhoon-hit area

President Benigno Aquino has travelled to areas in the southern Philippines devastated by a powerful typhoon that struck earlier this week.

Meeting survivors in New Bataan, the scene of deadly flash floods, he said efforts had to be made to ensure such a disaster was not repeated.

A total of 418 people are now confirmed dead and another 383 remain missing, official figures show.

More than 300,000 people are currently staying in evacuation centres.

Typhoon Bopha struck the southern island of Mindanao on Tuesday. High winds and heavy rain damaged a swathe of the island, but the worst-hit areas were two eastern provinces, Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental.

In New Bataan, in Compostela Valley, several buildings - including emergency shelters - were washed away or buried by flash floods and mudslides.

"We want to find out why this tragedy happened and how to keep these tragedies from happening again," Mr Aquino was quoted by AFP news agency as telling local residents.

"I am here to listen and hear explanations. This is not a time for accusations. It is a time for work," he said.

The typhoon destroyed almost 16,000 houses, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said, forcing families to seek shelter elsewhere.

Damage so far has been estimated at 4bn pesos ( $100m, £60m).

A local military commander told Reuters news agency that recovering some of the bodies was hard because they were buried in mud, and troops had no specialist equipment.

Compostela Valley Governor Arturo Uy said that mass graves could be dug for victims of the typhoon who had not been claimed by relatives.

The Philippines is hit by several typhoons each year but they usually strike further to the north. Last year, Typhoon Washi left more than 1,300 people dead when it struck northern Mindanao, causing rivers to burst their banks.

Ahead of this typhoon - which was stronger than Washi - the government issued warnings, with Mr Aquino appearing on television to urge people to take the storm seriously.

Troops were sent to help out with evacuations and rescue personnel deployed in advance.

Source:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20636943

Rebuilding Compostela Valley will take years, says gov

The task of rebuilding Compostela Valley from the devastating effects of Typhoon “Pablo” would take “years and billions of pesos” to complete, the provincial governor said Friday as local officials and residents tried to cope with the rising death toll.

Over 70 percent of the province’s area was devastated, with damage to agriculture alone pegged at almost P4 billion, according to Governor Arturo Uy.

While the people of Compostela Valley could in time overcome their grief over their dead—the official tally stood at 201 as of late Thursday— and missing relatives— 406—Uy said regaining their livelihood would be quite difficult.

“The saddest part is that ‘Pablo’ literally wiped out people’s livelihood. People depend on agriculture and it was that sector that was hit so hard,” Uy told the Inquirer here on Friday.

Donations from the local and the national governments as well as from the private sector began to trickle in a day after Tuesday’s devastation, but Uy said the aid so far received was simply not enough. More was needed to bring normalcy back, he said.

Uy said the provincial government would first attend to the “immediate temporary needs” of those affected. “Food and clothing first, and prioritize the search operations in New Bataan,” he said.

Uy said the affected families cannot stay for long in schools, gymnasiums and other public buildings so the government has to look for safer and more permanent places for them.

About 24,700 families or over 120,000 people were displaced in Compostela Valley, according to figures released by the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council. The province has a population of about 700,000.

“Our bigger problem now is where will these people stay?” the governor said.

Uy also reacted to reports (not in the Philippine Daily Inquirer) that the people of the province were ill-prepared despite warnings about the strong typhoon’s approach being repeatedly made days before it actually made landfall.

“With the magnitude [of the destruction] caused by the typhoon, our preparations were put to naught,” he said, urging unity.

“Let’s be strong. Maybe this is just a test for us. We would strive to address your concerns. Please just bear with us if we cannot address your needs right away,” he said.

In Cateel, Davao Oriental, food and medicine were also scarce for a pop[ulation of about 50,000, according to Mayor Carmelo Nuñez.

“Practically, everybody here is affected,” he said.

Relief goods have started coming in, but Nuñez said they were not enough.

While money was needed to procure food and medicines for the typhoon victims, a state of calamity, which would enable the local government to draw a portion of its annual budget, had yet to be formally declared.

Nuñez said the Sangguniang Bayan has yet to convene, nearly a week since Pablo made landfall in Davao Oriental.

Typhoon victims were seen foraging and scavenging for food.

At the town center, the Inquirer saw a group of residents dividing a sack of rain-drenched rice.

Emotions ran high among typhoon victims as food was scarce.

A group of residents even asked the Inquirer if taking photos of the devastation would do them any good.

“Sana makarating sa labas na wala na kaming kinakain dito,” one resident said.

Leopolda Casina, 48, a mother of seven, said no assistance had reached them as of yet.

“Wala talaga,” she said outside a shanty fashioned from material salvaged from what used to be her home in the village of Maribojoc.

Casina said they lost their means of livelihood. The fishing banca the family has owned was swept away during the typhoon.

Asked what she would do, Casina said: “I don’t know. We will take it slowly.”

Injured residents also continued to flock to the town’s district hospital, which has been condemned after Pablo blew its ceiling off. At least three patients were now lying on hospital beds in an adjacent building. Its two physicians were spotted attending to out-going patients.

Medicines were lacking and many patients were seen leaving a makeshift hospital without getting treatment. For example, Angela Inabuan, 42, left without getting an anti-tetanus shot for a wound on the left foot.

“I stepped on a nail,” she said.

In North Cotabato, the excess water that Pablo dumped in northern and eastern Mindanao finally found its way into the Rio Grande de Mindanao Friday and caused it to swell even more.

In Kabacan town, 13 villages were now submerged and about 1,722 families had to flee, North Cotabato Governor Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza said.

In Maguindanao, Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu said 600 families from Montawal and Pagalungan towns, both of which Rio Grande traverses, had fled toward the national highway as water inundated their villages.

Loreto Rirao, Civil Defense director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said a team from the Regional Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Council had been deployed to assist the evacuees and provide them temporary shelter.

Mangudadatu said as the water in the Rio Grande continued to rise, and the towns of Datu Piang, Rajah Buayan, Mamasapano, Kabuntalan, and Sultan sa Barongis were being closely watched. These towns lie along the river’s course leading to the Liguasan Marsh.

Source:-
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/320423/rebuilding-compostela-valley-will-take-years-says-gov-2

As I've mentioned in other postings we have literally hundreds of family members living and working in this hard hit area.

We have only been able to communicate one time, but it seems the damage is more severe than we first imagined.

Today we ordered 5 balikbayan boxes and will get these filled up and sent out with anything that we think will help them.

Most are working on the land or are fishing.
We know that quite a few of our family have lost their fishing boats. It'll take us quite some time to replace.

We're still trying to communicate somehow.

Just seems so unreal that only a couple of weeks ago we were all together.

Time for the Aquino government to do something positive to minimise the damage when these events re occur. With respect for those who came to harm, it is time to be proactive and do something to prevent such events from being so destructive to humanity in the future.

In Kenya, they employ rangers to ensure that the forests are well managed. As seen in the attached video.

http://www.unep.org/newscentre/multimedia/default.asp?ct=vid

A very good reason for the President visiting New Bataan is that, as the odd choice of name may suggest, it was founded, and held until a couple of years ago, by the New People's Army.

I'll bet you will hear a good deal of Tagalog spoken there...

This is a chance for the elected Government to show that it is more use than the Marxist guerillas when it comes to doing stuff.

Looks like it is heading towards Luzon and rekindled.

"Typhoon Bopha is responsible for at least 500 deaths in the southern Philippines, and it may not be done inflicting damage on the storm-ravaged country. Some track forecasts show it reversing course, potentially affecting the northern Philippines in about two days."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...ed76598-408c-11e2-bca3-aadc9b7e29c5_blog.html

I have been looking at this one:

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/wp201226_5day.html

What frustrates me Oss is that measures could be taken to minimise the impact of these incidents. But every time someone states what to me seems the obvious, I think the message is dismissed as the namby pamby words of a bleating treehugger.

There most definitely is a tree hugging voice out there and through that voice there are laws in place. Its just that the laws aren't enforced in a meaningful way. There's a strong voice there saying stop the logging or pay the price in all senses.

Some of the wealthy are well aware and are aware that it affects their children. And there are laws in place to protect the children. But again these laws aren't exactly enforced in the fullest of ways.

I don't think we are going to reform the Philippines from here!

The Government is weak because it cannot raise enough taxes to pay its servants properly.

The Government is weak because it cannot pay its servants enough to collect taxes properly.

etc...

Yes. I take your point. Armchair politics. But I have as much enthusiasm for sensible environmental management in the Philippines as I do the RH Bill. Both are equally as crucial to the countries future.

So have I (and I am at least as guilty of putting the Philippines to rights from my armchair as anyone here!)

A friend in Cagayan d'Oro (slightly preoccupied with taking care of 4,200 refugees in the past couple of days!) has pointed out the absurdty of the campaign against SM cutting down 170 trees in Baguio given (a) the general state of Baguio these days and (b) the enormously bigger issues of illegal logging (a friend of his is no longer with us, having photgraphed the wrong thing at the wrong time...)

I read about the Baguio tree thing. Yes.

I have never been a tree hugger in my life, however I see the sense in managing the natural resources, in this case trees, of the Philippines as (a) they still have something left worth managing, (b) will surely help minimise the loss of life and livelihood in the future and (c) if managed well provide a source of timber for the country as a whole and associated employment.

When its gone its gone.

And yes, supporting the environment can be highly dangerous but at least some folk are making a stand.

Yes, we are just as bad in some ways but we do at least go some way towards protecting our environment here in the UK for instance.

The Oposa v Factoran case, for example, was pushed through by a wealthy Filipino, recognised by the United Nations as a landmark case.

http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Oposa_vs._Factoran

The laws are in place. I know that Oposa is constantly putting his point across, in the press and at Diliman aswell as in Bantayan where he runs a school. He tries also to focus on raising awareness levels in the Philippines, top down and bottom up and putting the point across that the natural resources need to be carefully managed and not just pillaged. I think he is having some success. His daughter pretty much preaches the same doctrine and they aren't on their own.