NOY MISSED TONS OF EVACUEES' TALES OF WOES /
BLAMES GMA FOR WOES AGAIN
[PHOTO - President Aquino thanks
volunteers packing relief goods at the DSWD Relief Center in Pasay.
pic.twitter.com/rxnnRidu]
CITY OF MALOLOS, AUGUST 13, 2012 (INQUIRER) By Carmela
Reyes-Estrope - President Benigno Aquino III's inspection of the
floodplains of Central Luzon on Friday brought a ray of hope into the bleak
lives of victims of the weeklong monsoon rains and floods who took refuge in
evacuation centers in Tarlac, Pampanga and Bulacan provinces.
But the President missed the flood victims' concerns and anecdotes that he
could have heard had he met them face to face.
Carlos Macasling, 50, of Barangay Sumapang Matanda here, said his family and
other evacuees were suddenly transported by military trucks from the provincial
gymnasium to the Malolos sports complex in Barangay Sta. Isabel at dawn on
Friday.
Make room for wedding
The reason: The local government was paid a bundle to reserve the gym
exclusively for a weekend wedding.
Macasling said his family was ushered into a room with wet bedding, owing to
leaks from the roof.
Jean Cristobal, caretaker of 23 families who were also relocated, said they
were told that the wedding was booked even before floods struck most Bulacan
towns.
Provincial officials were incensed when told about the move, but had not
offered any official statement.
To many evacuees at the sports complex, the transfer had been disappointing
because the President did not even reach out to them.
A child is born
Mr. Aquino motored to the city proper, instead of the sports complex in the
village as scheduled, because bad weather prevented a fleet of helicopters from
flying him to several destinations on Friday.
The President and Cabinet officials managed to visit Malolos Central School,
where 400 families took refuge.
Maricel Artacha, 26, said she would have told the President that she had
given birth at home in the middle of the calamity. Her husband, Joel, 27, acted
as midwife when she gave birth to their fifth child.
Floods left them isolated from neighbors and the nearest hospital and no
medical teams could reach them, Artacha said.
There were also some good news in the aftermath of the calamity.
Miner rescued
In Benguet on Friday, volunteers finally rescued Felipe Plimaco, 34, a pocket
miner from La Union, a week after he was trapped in an eroding Bokod tunnel on
Aug. 3.
Plimaco celebrated his birthday on Aug. 7 inside the shaft, parts of which
collapsed due to strong rains. Benguet miners worked to dig him out, said Lomino
Kaniteng, president of Benguet small-scale mining federation.
"We were never informed about this tunnel, which must be old because it is
deep. The distance separating the rescuers and Plimaco was only 2 meters but the
tunnel walls were fragile and crumbled every time the rescuers erected poles to
stabilize the hole," Kaniteng said.
Plimaco was fed air and food through a pipe that was inserted into the
tunnel. As soon as he emerged, Plimaco was given eggs, rice and coffee. With a report from Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon
'GMA left behind only flood plans' By Delon
Porcalla (The Philippine Star) Updated August 13, 2012 12:00 AMComments (87)
MANILA, Philippines - While his government was busy trying to
mitigate the consequences of massive flooding in Metro Manila and nearby
provinces, President Aquino yesterday blamed his predecessor for leaving behind
mere "plans" to solve the perennial problem.
"What is hard here is I just inherited the plans – one of them is the
dredging of Laguna Lake," the President told evacuees in Montalban, Rizal, in
reference to a government project he called off in late 2010 due to its
apparently dubious nature.
Aquino informed the evacuees that he cancelled the P18.7-billion project
since it had no use and would just be a waste of government resources that would
entail transferring silt from one end of Laguna lake to the other.
"There is a need to cancel it so that water would increase. It would be
foolhardy to spend P18.7 billion just to play with mud. We can use it perhaps in
Valenzuela where there is a nine-kilometer dike," he said.
The government cannot release government funds, which came from taxpayers'
money, just to collect four million cubic meters every year of mud from Laguna
lake, and remove the total 12 million cubic meters – only to transfer it to the
other side.
Aquino again took a swipe at former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, now a
congresswoman from Pampanga, saying the government is more prepared and equipped
now to handle such disasters, compared to the past administration.
"So, you can expect… maybe you have noticed that the government now did not
come up short (as it did during) during 'Ondoy,'" he said in Filipino, referring
to the tropical storm that practically submerged the metropolis in September
2009 and left around 300 dead.
Aquino already made the rounds last week in affected areas in Metro Manila,
among them the cities of Muntinlupa, Quezon City, Marikina, Caloocan, Malabon,
Navotas and Valenzuela.
Other provinces severely affected have likewise been inspected like his home
province Tarlac, Pampanga, Bataan and Bulacan. Over the weekend, he visited the
towns of Montalban and Cainta in Rizal province and Pasay City as well. – With
Rey Galupo
Aquino thanked Rizal Gov. Jun Ynares for making sure that help is extended to
those in need during the calamity. He also made special mention of Aurora Rep.
Sonny Angara, who will be instrumental in pushing the House to approve key
measures of government.
Garbage problem in Manila
Meanwhile, Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim appealed to all Manila residents to
cooperate in speeding up the city government's efforts in clearing all the
streets of garbage.
Manila city hall's department of public services chief ret. Col. Carlos
Baltazar reported that the volume of garbage in the aftermath of the rains and
floods has gone up five times, compared to the already voluminous trash
collected during Ondoy.
Lim also directed city engineer Armand Andres to mobilize the district
engineers in each of Manila's six districts to repair all potholes and other
destruction caused by the heavy flooding.
"I hope everyone helps with the problem. There should be citizen involvement
in this problem. We should not leave this to the government," he said.
Baltazar said that on a daily basis, at least 1,900 tons of garbage are
collected during normal weather and during storm-related calamities, the volume
increases five-fold and includes water-damaged appliances and furniture.
However, a city hall employee told The STAR that the cleanup could take days
even if they are working overtime to bring back Manila to normal. – Rey Galupo
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All
rights reserved
PHILIPPINE
HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/phnotweet
This is the PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE (PHNO) Mailing List.
To stop receiving our news items, please send a blank e-mail addressed to: phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Please visit our homepage at: http://www.newsflash.org/
(c) Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
phno-digest@yahoogroups.com
phno-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
PH Headline News Online. Copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved