NOY CONVENES DISASTER COUNCIL 5 DAYS AFTER PEDRING HITS
[PHOTO - More water Calumpit residents wade through floodwaters as flooding continues for the fourth day Sunday in Bulacan. Back-to-back typhoons left rescuers scrambling to deliver food and water to hundreds of villagers stuck on roofs for four days. AP]
MANILA, OCTOBER 4, 2011 (STANDARD) by Joyce Pangco Pañares and Christine F. Herrera - PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III on Sunday convened the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, five days after typhoon Pedring battered Luzon and left Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and Pangasinan submerged in floodwaters.
Deputy presidential spokewoman Abigail Valte said the President would visit hard-hit Bulacan this week, and then sought to deflect criticism that Mr. Aquino was slow to respond to the damage left by two powerful typhoons.
"The President does not want to immediately visit the typhoon-struck areas because he does not want to become the focus or the center of attraction when he visits," Valte said.
"He prefers to wait until the situation has stabilized and until assistance has been extended before he visits."
Valte offered no details on Mr. Aquino's scheduled visit to Bulacan.
Mr. Aquino had only two public engagements last week after arriving from a four-day visit to Japan on Sept. 28.
He attended the Asean 100 Leadership Forum on Thursday and the 30th anniversary celebrations of McDonald's Philippines on Friday, both at the Shangri-La hotel in Makati.
Critics slammed him for his "insensitivity, indifference and slow response" to the suffering brought about by typhoons Pedring (Nesat) and Quiel (Nalgae).
On Sunday, Zambales Rep. Maria Milagros Magsaysay said relief arrived in flood-stricken Hagonoy four days after Pedring struck because the Palace wanted to exhaust the "spirit of Bayanihan" (self-help) first.
"Bayanihan is what we all do every time there is a calamity," Magsaysay said.
"Most local governments are left to fend for themselves. It is the indifference and slow response and action of the government that needs improvement, especially in the areas that were hit hard."
Magsaysay twitted a Palace statement that said Mr. Aquino did not visit the flood-stricken areas because he did not want "a photo-opp."
She reminded the Palace that in September 2009, when Mr. Aquino was campaigning for the presidency, he cut short his Mindanao sorties to distribute relief in Luzon when tropical storm Ondoy struck.
She excoriated Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman for staying behind in the United States and not ensuring that her department moved quickly to help the typhoon-devastated areas.
"The Social Welfare Department should have packed relief as the storms were announced," she said.
"The Defense Department should have been prepared to deploy rubber boats and trucks to disaster areas. It's as if we hadn't learned from past mistakes."
At the meeting of the disaster council Sunday, Mr. Aquino ordered Public Works officials to look into reports that the design of the seawall along Roxas Boulevard was modified, thus causing it to collapse at the height of Typhoon Pedring last week.
"I want to know why it was modified and who ordered its modification," Mr. Aquino said.
Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson could not answer the President, but said the modification could have been done within the last decade.
Singson said his department could do a 50-year study for the seawall, instead of the usual 25-year study.
The President asked the Justice Department to study the legality of forced evacuations in times of disaster and ordered the involved agencies to ensure a unified protocol for releasing water from dams during typhoons.
He ordered the National Food Authority to buy the rough rice damaged by the recent typhoons.
The administrator of the weather bureau, Nathaniel Servando, said a new typhoon, Ramon, was expected to make landfall by Friday.
Based on projections, the typhoon will hit Cagayan province and Babuyan Island in the north.
Valte, at a briefing, said there was no need to import rice yet despite the damage to farmland.
Agriculture Department records showed that 50,178 metric tons of rice production were lost to Pedring, but those accounted for less than 1 percent of the grain production target for the fourth quarter.
The same report showed Pedring affected 80,038 hectares of rice land scheduled for harvest this quarter.
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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