P-NOY TAKES TRUCK RIDE TO 'WORLD OF WATER' / 2 TYPHOONS DEATH TOLLS: 76
MALOLOS, BULACAN, OCTOBER 6, 2011 (STAR) By Aurea Calica (Photo - President Aquino rides a military truck to inspect flooded areas on MacArthur Highway in Barangay Corazon in Calumpit, Bulacan yesterday. WILLY PEREZ)
President Aquino assured the nation yesterday that the government was ready to do rehabilitation work and provide relief assistance to the victims of typhoons "Pedring" and "Quiel" as some P8 billion in calamity funds were on standby and could be utilized for affected areas.
Aquino visited the flood-ravaged provinces of Tarlac, Pampanga and Bulacan, riding an Army truck in the town of Calumpit, to personally assess the damage from the two typhoons.
Unlike in the past when calamity funds were depleted early on, the President said that the P8-billion existing calamity funds were carried over from 2010 to 2011.
He said there had been releases for Leyte-Samar area, Bicol and Caraga early in the year, but the government still has P8 billion to utilize.
Speaking at a briefing of the Regional Development Council (RDC) at the Hiyas Convention Center here, the President said the list of "must do" damaged infrastructure facilities in Region 3 amounting to P323.5 million could be immediately addressed by the government.
He said he was still waiting for the complete assessment of the extent of damage caused by Pedring and Quiel as it was expected to exceed that of "Ondoy" in 2009.
He also justified the government's reason not to declare a national state of calamity and that the incoming typhoon "Ramon" had dissipated based on reports.
The President also confronted the issues against him for allegedly being absent during the time of the disaster and for his government's slow response to the people's needs.
He said "his conscience is clear" and he was satisfied with the presence of his officials in areas ravaged by the typhoons.
Aquino emphasized that there was no need to ask for donations from all sectors just to be able to provide for the relief goods to be distributed to the victims of typhoons and flooding.
In Pampanga, he was briefed by local officials led by Gov. Lilia Pineda on the extent of the devastation, then proceeded to Barangay San Felipe where he inspected the proposed Mt. Pinatubo Hazard Urgent Mitigation Project Phase 3-B (PHUMPP 3-B)
The proposed PHUMPP 3-B will serve as a line of defense for the City of San Fernando and nearby towns against flooding.
Crops severely hit
Reporting to the President, Agriculture Undersecretary Antonio Fleta said the damage to the agricultural sector from the two recent typhoons has already jumped to P11.7 billion, with the damage to palay/rice crop alone reaching P11 billion.
Fleta revealed that damage to palay is much higher compared to damage inflicted by typhoons Ondoy and Pedring.
Damage to corn crops is substantially lower at around P522 million, while damage to high-value crops is at P221 million.
The Department of Agriculture, through its Philippine Crop Insurance Corp. (PCIC), said it intends to expedite the release of P334 million to Luzon farmers whose crops were damaged by typhoons Pedring and Quiel last week.
The amount is the biggest payout the agency has made to date.
In a report to Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, PCIC president Jovy Bernabe said the magnitude of the indemnity owes not only to the severity of the twin calamities, but also to the expansion of PCIC's insurance coverage among farmers during the last 12 months.
Bernabe said the PCIC would reactivate their adjusters in the private sector to help PCIC cope with the huge task of verifying the crop insurance claims of farmers.
He said preliminary assessment showed about P333.93-million worth of crops, mostly palay, were insured in 30 provinces covering the entire Luzon.
The affected farmers who were able to insure their crops totaled 26,794, with a combined farm area of 40,138 hectares.
Price freeze
Taking a cue from the President, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) announced they will be implementing a price freeze on basic goods in the typhoon stricken areas to protect residents from unscrupulous businessmen.
"It's (price freeze) a consequence once an area is under state of calamity, then we implement," Trade Undersecretary for Consumer Welfare Zenaida Maglaya said in a text message. This means that the prices of goods in these areas should be at pre-typhoon levels.
The price freeze is now implemented in Amulong, Cagayan, Obando, Calumpit, Dinalupihan, Bataan, Noveleta, Cavite, Santiago City, Tuguegarao, Meycauayan, Olongapo, Tarlac, Malabon, Navotas, Marikina, the whole of Quirino and Isabela provinces, Nueva Ecija and Cavite.
Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said there will be no price control as a result of the two typhoons. They will instead come out with guidelines against profiteers.
"I don't even want to talk about price control. It overpowers the law of supply and demand," Domingo told reporters.
He said under their guidelines, businessmen will be required to submit their costing, like the cost to get the goods from distributors to the retailers.
At the same time, Domingo issued a warning to businessmen who will take advantage of the calamity and raise their prices.
He said the typhoons are not enough reason to increase prices and sellers must justify their high prices and submit the cost of the entire chain from procurement to selling.
Helping hands
Meanwhile, the Pag-Ibig Fund (Home Development Mutual Fund) has declared a three-month moratorium on housing payment for its members who were ravaged by the two typhoons.
Vice President Jejomar Binay, chairman of the fund's board of trustees, said Pag-Ibig wants to help its members in Luzon who were affected by the typhoons.
Pag-Ibig also earlier extended financial help to its members who were typhoon victims through its calamity loan program.
"Now, the fund is expanding its assistance program by adding a three-month moratorium on payments of housing loan dues," Binay said, adding that the suspension of loan payments will help alleviate the difficulties faced by members.
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), on the other hand, had begun soliciting financial support for typhoon victims from the foreign organization Caritas Internationalis.
So far it has received support from four of its member-countries.
CBCP-National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace (Nassa) executive secretary Fr. Edu Gariguez told reporters in a forum that Caritas members in Norway, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea have reportedly pledged to send donations to the provinces badly hit by the typhoons.
Caritas has about 165 members.
Debt moratorium
The Alyansang Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luson (AMGL), meanwhile, appealed to the President to implement a moratorium on the loans of farmers affected by the recent typhoons.
The AMGL also asked the government to provide farmers P50,000 "cash assistance" each to enable them to rebuild their destroyed homes. AMGL is the biggest umbrella organization of farmers in Central Luzon.
In a statement issued in time for the President's visit, the AMGL also asked the Department of Agriculture to provide the farmers subsidy equivalent to at least 50 percent of the cost of their agricultural losses from the floods triggered by the recent typhoons "to enable them to rebuild their lives."
"We emphasize the need for moratorium on loan payments as their losses have made the farmers all the more vulnerable to exploitation by their landlords," said AMGL chairman Joseph Canlas.
Canlas warned that "unless government helps, the farmers would be compelled to pawn or sell their lands just to pay up these loans."
PAGASA mulls weather stations
In a related development, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said it is planning to put up within two to three years' time about a thousand automatic weather stations (AWSs) around the country to better assist in weather monitoring and forecasting, and hopefully avoid the worsening effects of disasters.
Speaking at the "Balitaan sa Aloha Hotel" in Manila, Vicente Malano, acting PAGASA deputy administrator for operations and services, said they plan to initially establish about a hundred AWSs soon.
Malano said aside from the Doppler Radar installation project, PAGASA also needs the AWSs to automate its ground stations in order to perform faster, more accurately and efficiently in the areas throughout the country.
He said this will primarily serve as early warning and monitoring devices for disaster mitigation.
The AWSs will maintain a nationwide environmental monitoring network and will continuously provide solutions for the mitigation of environment-related disasters.
They are equipped with sensors capable of measuring weather parameters, wind speed and direction, air temperature, air humidity, air pressure, rain amount, duration and intensity.
Malano said the priority areas for the AWSs would be Zamboanga, Panay Island and Busuanga.
He cited the need to install additional AWSs to cover the entire nation for the people to be more prepared and protected against stronger typhoons and their effects including floods, landslides and storm surge, which is an increase of level in the sea.
He said this is being experienced especially near the coastlines and offshore.
While there are signs that climate change affects typhoons, Malano, however, stressed this is not conclusive.
"There were studies but the data is not enough. There are areas where before, there were no floods in some areas, but now there are. Before, the effect of climate change was not yet considered," Malano said.
He likewise brushed aside accusations that the release of water in dams was a contributory factor to massive flooding.
"The records of the studies before have been there for about 50 years now. I think this has to be revised, the protocol to release water from the dams," said Malano.
At present, the time for the warning given is three hours before the water would be released from the dams. Malano also said that typhoon is erratic and that weather forecasting is not one hundred percent accurate.
"This (release of water from the dams) has to be studied. We know that the movement of the typhoon is erratic," he said —With Cecille Suerte Felipe, Evelyn Macairan, Jose Rodel Clapano, Ding Cervantes, Christina Mendez, Delon Porcalla, Rhodina Villanueva, Elisa Osorio, Marianne Go, Paolo Romero
Combined death toll from 'Pedring,' 'Quiel' rises to 76 By Alexis Romero (The Philippine Star) Updated October 06, 2011 12:00 AM Comments (0)
MANILA, Philippines - The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) has placed the combined death toll from typhoons "Pedring" and "Quiel" at 76.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) has promised to remove Pedring from its list of code names of future tropical cyclones that would hit the Philippines due to the typhoon's widespread damage to the country.
Six new fatalities were recorded in the Ilocos and Central Luzon regions, all of them caused by typhoon Quiel.
They were identified as Michael Arviso, 26, Jomar Pascua, 16, Jerry Tapiador, 21 of Pangasinan; King Raimel Calendario, 6, Benjie Benedicto, 36, and Celso Milina of Tarlac.
The two typhoons also left a total of 74 people injured, 66 of them during the height of Pedring and a majority of them in Northern Luzon provinces. A total of 29 people remain missing.
Latest reports on the impact of Quiel showed that the provinces that sustained the most serious damage were Nueva Vizcaya and Isabela, both from the Cagayan region.
The figure may still rise as disaster management officials are still awaiting field reports from heavily affected areas.
NDRRMC executive director Benito Ramos has said that the amount of property damage caused by Pedring may exceed that of "Ondoy," which destroyed P10.9 billion in infrastructure and agriculture in 2009.
As of yesterday, a total of 611,661 families or about 2.85 million people have been affected by Pedring in Ilocos, Cagayan, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas, Cordillera and Metro Manila.
On the other hand, Quiel affected 18,401 families or 77,005 people.
Both typhoons damaged more than 51,000 houses nationwide.
PAGASA supervising undersecretary Graciano Yumul said the agency "decommissions" the name of cyclones that caused massive damage because "we don't want people to recall the horrors brought by the destructive storms."
PAGASA said a low pressure area was spotted some 560 kilometers east of Visayas as of 5 p.m. yesterday.
The low pressure area is embedded along the intertropical convergence zone affecting Southern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
PAGASA said Central and Southern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao will experience mostly cloudy skies with scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms.
The rest of the country will be partly cloudy to cloudy with isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms, PAGASA said.
Closer look at the dams
At the Senate, Sen. Francis Escudero called on the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) to require all dam operators in the country to get indemnity insurance to cover victims of flooding caused or aggravated by the release of water from dams.
Escudero, chairman of the Senate committee on environment and natural resources, said DOE and NIA should now carefully study and consider making indemnity insurance mandatory for all public and private dam operators.
"Appropriate regulations for indemnification should be in place to ensure compensation for any actual losses due to flood brought about by dam water releases. And the imposition of mandatory indemnity insurance addresses this squarely," he said. – With Helen Flores, Sheila Crisostomo, Christina Mendez, Rainier Allan Ronda, Raymund Catindig, Ric Sapnu, Cecille Suerte Felipe
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