DISASTER VICTIMS IN CITIES OF CDO AND ILIGAN BEGIN REBUILDING
[PHOTO - BLUE CHRISTMAS: A blue Christmas lantern hangs near a classroom of a school being used as an evacuation center in Cagayan de Oro City yesterday. Ferdinand Edralin]
MANILA, DECEMBER 23, 2011 (STAR) Residents of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities, thousands of them in mourning and displaced by torrential flooding spawned by tropical storm "Sendong," have started the hard work of rebuilding their lives.
Authorities still have their hands full burying the dead and searching for the missing.
The official death toll from last week's massive flooding in the two cities topped 1,000 yesterday. Authorities admitted losing count of how many more were missing in one of the worst calamities to hit the region.
The latest tally showed a total of 1,026 people confirmed dead, said Benito Ramos, head of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).
Casualties have also been recorded in several southern and central provinces in Mindanao.
"The total number of fatalities is already 1,026 and still rising because retrieval operations are still ongoing," Ramos said.
Sendong (international code name Washi) swept through Northern Mindanao Friday and unleashed flashfloods in the middle of the night that caught most of the victims asleep.
"There were many lessons learned by the people who did not listen to national and local governments, but this is not the time to put the blame on them," Ramos said.
Most of the casualties were in the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan and more than 276,000 people remain homeless, many now sheltered in dozens of evacuation areas.
Some of the thousands displaced by the devastation headed back to their villages to reclaim their lives and rebuild destroyed houses.
Television footage showed residents shoveling mud, washing furniture and hanging clothes out to dry under the sun.
"We have no other place to go but to our old homes," a woman who gave her name as Marina told ANC television, saying the evacuation centers were too crowded for her family.
"We have to get on with our lives, rebuild our house and forget this tragedy. We appeal to the kindhearted to give us lumber and galvanized iron so we can build a new home," she said.
Some of the displaced spent the night on sidewalks due to overcrowding in schools, churches, gymnasiums and army bases, raising public health concerns due to poor sanitation and lack of potable water.
Nestor de la Cruz, whose two-storey house was swept away to sea, appealed to the government to relocate his family and his neighbors to a safer place. About 70 percent of houses in his village were either destroyed or badly damaged.
"We're returning to our village, but we would welcome help from the government if they can give us land and build us new houses."
Ramos said it might take time to build new communities for the displaced as they focus on search, relief and recovery operations.
"Core shelters may take time to build because of the requirements involved," Ramos told a radio interview.
"There are environmental clearances to secure and you have to show the location is not prone to floods or landslides."
[PHOTO - A resident inspects vehicles damaged by massive flooding in Barangay Balulang in Cagayan de Oro City. FERDINAND EDRALIN]
Ramos said the government continues to be focused on retrieving the bodies, most of which are being pulled from the sea off Cagayan de Oro.
"We've stop counting those who are missing because even local officials could not give the exact figure of how many of their constituents have gone missing. What is important to us now is to recover the dead so that they can be given a decent burial," Ramos said.
Iligan city officials continued to bury drowning victims, many of them already decomposing, in newly-built concrete crypts at a public cemetery.
A Reuters photographer saw bodies of one family lying in coffins built from logs that destroyed homes during the flood being pushed into one crypt. About 50 bodies were buried late Tuesday and dozens more were buried on Wednesday.
Family members or residents of the same villages were entombed in a single sepulcher in Iligan City, but officials in Cagayan de Oro delayed mass burial to allow police to tag for identification more than 600 bodies recovered.
With a handful of funeral parlors overwhelmed in Iligan and Cagayan de Oro, authorities and grieving relatives have begun burying the dead.
People wept during funeral rites at the Iligan city cemetery, where soldiers carried the caskets of at least 38 victims Tuesday. Many wore masks to try to block the stench of decomposing bodies.
"We have to give the dead a decent burial," Iligan Mayor Lawrence Cruz said. He said authorities were using part of the cemetery's passageway to build tombs.
More burials were planned yesterday, including for unclaimed remains after they were processed by government forensic teams for future identification.
Helping the living
Brig. Gen. Roland Amarille, head of the military search and rescue teams, said the troops were given until Sunday, Christmas Day, to search for the missing and recover more dead bodies.
"We will be making assessment until Christmas Day whether we will already cease the search and focus on helping the rehabilitation," Amarille said.
He said the troops have already taken on the relief mission as additional task, apart from the search mission in affected communities.
Amarille said they were tapped to delivery the relief goods in many far-flung areas that were not accessible to civilian volunteers.
"There were many villages in far flung areas which were isolated by the flash loods and the roads or bridges are not accessible so our forces were tapped for the mission," Amarille said. "They were practically isolated so they needed the relief assistance because they have no other means to go down from the mountains."
Regional military spokesman Maj. Julio Eugene Osias said the troops are under orders to retrieve more bodies before the rehabilitation operation begins.
"We are doing things phase by phase. After the retrieval operations, our troops will proceed to rehabilitation operations," Osias said.
Ramos added the scene of bloated bodies is also taking its toll on the troops engaged in the retrieval operations.
But the troops are not backing out from their job and are determined to go on as long as needed, he said.
On Tuesday, President Aquino declared a state of national calamity and ordered an investigation into the disaster.
Aquino said the government has more than P1 billion in calamity funds and could access soft loans from the Asian Development Bank and World Bank for long-term rehabilitation work.
Aquino promised the government "will do its best to prevent a repeat of this tragedy."
Aquino yesterday issued Proclamation 303 where resources of the national government would be utilized for helping the calamity-stricken areas in Mindanao.
Under Proclamation 303 the government will be "spearheading the entire nation's efforts to undertake immediate rescue, recovery, relief and rehabilitation" of Regions 7, 9, 10, 11 and Caraga.
Sen. Franklin Drilon, chairman of the Senate committee on finance, said the 2011 national budget has P5 billion in calamity funds and around P480 billion in Quick Response Funds (QRF), all of which can be tapped for the post-Sendong operations.
"Assuming it has been exhausted, President Aquino can realign items in the 2011 GAA, as programmed deficit ceiling provides wide fiscal space," Drilon said.
Why so many dead
Aquino also said there would be an assessment of why so many people died and why those living along riverbanks and close to the coast - most of them illegal settlers - had not been moved to safety.
"I do not accept that everything had been done. I know that we can do more. We must determine what really happened," Aquino said. "Must this end in tragedy? We knew that (storm) was coming. There should have been efforts to avoid the destruction."
Illegal logging is another factor believed to have contributed to the staggering death toll, as many victims were swept away by huge logs that rolled down denuded mountains facing the two cities.
Experts say unmitigated logging and deforestation contribute to soil erosion and trigger mudslides.
Aquino declared a ban on logging in February but weak law enforcement and corruption makes it a recurring problem.
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is also looking into reports that the collapse of three irrigation dams could have contributed to the deadly flashfloods.
"It is most likely that the flashflood in Cagayan de Oro was caused not only simply by the high volume of rain that fell in the watershed of rivers in said places but essentially of the collapse of dams at the upper parts of the rivers," Science Secretary Mario Montejo said.
Former Defense chief and chairman of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) Gilberto Teodoro said the flashfloods that hit Cagayan de Oro and Iligan is becoming a pattern that concerned government agencies should take into consideration.
"One can discern the start of a pattern, and this pattern shows that natural calamity will re-occur in a particular area with increasing intensity and sadly with greater devastation," Teodoro said.
Teodoro cited a case in January 2009 where Cagayan de Oro and Gingoog City were also hit by flashfloods and mudslides after days of continuous rain - without any typhoon.
And three years later, at about the same time of the year, came Sendong. Both disasters occurred when they were least expected and in area where people rarely feel the effects of typhoons or other severe weather disturbances, Teodoro pointed out.
"One can discern the start of a pattern. There is much talk on whether the people in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan were adequately warned of the dangers of Sendong. I can only say that in the case of natural calamities, especially in areas where these are infrequent, you cannot warn enough. More is better," Teodoro said.
Ramos maintained warnings by weather forecasters of an approaching storm went unheeded by residents.
"There were many lessons learned by the people who did not listen to national and local governments, but this is not the time to put the blame on them," Ramos said. - Jaime Laude, Helen Flores, Roel Pareño, Delon Porcalla
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The Philippine STAR Group appeals to kindhearted individuals and institutions to join its fund drive to assist victims of tropical storm "Sendong."
Donations from abroad can be sent through i-Remit, which will be accepting donations in over 700 locations in 26 countries all over the world.
Cash donations from local donors may be deposited to: The Philippine STAR Operation Damayan c/o Metrobank Aduana Branch Savings Account No. 151-304-161622-9 (Please fax deposit slip to tel. no. 301-9598 c/o Operation Damayan).
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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