US SOLDIERS HELP ‘PEPENG’ VICTIMS

Saturday, 10 October 2009

US forces bringing aid to flooded areas around Metro Manila were deploying troops to the northern part of the country on Friday to help people devastated by Typhoon Parma (local name Pepeng), officials said Friday.

At least four heavy-lift helicopters along with 18 teams of water-borne rescue units are moving to help Filipino forces with rescue efforts in the Ilocos and Cordillera regions on the north of the main island of Luzon, according to the Philippine military.

The Japan-based dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry was bringing two of the aircraft along with other rescue equipment to the area, Gen. Victor Ibrado, the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, announced on local television.

US forces have been helping Filipino troops bring emergency relief as well as conducting medical missions and clearing rubble from floods caused by tropical storm Ketsana (local name Ondoy), which killed 337 people in and around Manila and displaced more than four million on September 26.

Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres, the spokesman for the Philippines’ National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), told reporters that the US government had “pledged or offered the use of its resources in the Northern Luzon area.”
He said that the Americans had offered helicopters along with 18 watercrafts.

“Based on the agreement last night, they will start the deployment of their personnel this morning [Friday],” Torres added.

Donations reach P4.4 billion

Foreign donations for Ondoy victims reached $94,703,203 (around P4.4 billion) as of October 8.

This figure that included $75 million in pledges from the United Nations Development Fund, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs, was a 616-percent increase from the $13.22 million (about P634.76 million) three days earlier.
It did not include assistance in kind, such as medical missions, personnel and equipment deployment for search and rescue operations and assessment of damaged caused by Ondoy.

Also on Friday, the US government authorized $2 million in additional relief not only to Ondoy’s victims but also Pepeng’s, according to US Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Leslie Bassett.

The $2 million was in addition to $1.9 million in grants and $400,000 in non-food goods donated earlier by the US Agency for International Development.

It was meant to assure, US President Barack Obama said, the US government’s continued support for the Philippines that has been reeling from Ondoy and until Friday, from Pepeng.

“As a longstanding friend and partner of the Philippines, we stand ready to continue our cooperation and assistance in the coming days,” he added.

The American president expressed condolences for the loss of life and the devastation caused by recent storms that hit the country, particularly Ondoy.

“[First Lady] Michelle and I feel great sorrow over the hundreds of people who have died from the storms and resulting flooding and the hundreds of thousands more who have been displaced,” Obama said in a statement released by the White House.

But as Manila grappled with the destruction of Ondoy, Pepeng dumped rains for days in most of the northern provinces, causing record floods and landslides that have led to at least 90 deaths.

Thanks to Obama

Philippine Ambassador to the United States Willy Gaa thanked Obama for his assurance of continued US assistance and cooperation.

“I appreciate President Obama’s statement of concern for the Philippines and the Filipino people following the destruction caused by Typhoon Ondoy and for his commitment for continued US assistance and cooperation,” Gaa said.

He added that the Philippine Embassy was ready to coordinate with the US government in facilitating US aid for the Philippines.

Also on Friday, London said that it would hand over 500,000 pound to the Philippines for Ondoy’s victims
International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander said the amount was expected to come from the British government and individual citizens.

Opposition and local officials

Ondoy’s victims, apparently would also benefit from the United Opposition’s (UNO) announcement that it was suspending all of its political activities starting Friday to help provide relief to survivors of the storms.
Mayor Jejomar Binay of Makati City, also UNO president, and former President Joseph Estrada would lead in extending relief assistance to calamity victims in affected areas starting next week.

Help from the municipal government of Rodriguez (formerly Montalban) seemed to have come with a condition.

Ondoy’s victims from other areas who want to settle in Rodriguez can do so but, according to its mayor, Pedro Cuerpo, they would have to bring to the town the schools, teachers and clinics in their former communities.

Also during the Balitaan forum at Hotel Rembrandt on Friday, Cuerpo denied causing the delay in the resettlement of the victims in Rodriguez, one of the hardest hit towns in Rizal province.

A direct assistance of P20,000 each to members of the Social Security System who survived Ondoy would enable the victims to recover faster from the disaster, according to militant labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno.
“Surely, P20,000 is not enough, but it will help workers’ families to start over and move on with their lives. It can be easily granted by the government if it prioritizes the interests of the people,” Elmer Labog, the group’s chairman, said in a statement.

Department of Agriculture

The government, through the Department of Agriculture, for one, was apparently giving priority to two towns in Rizal province—Cainta and Taytay—and Metro Manila’s Pasig City.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap also on Friday kicked off the department’s Adopt-an-Evacuation Site Project for Ondoy’s victims by leading the distribution of an initial 1,000 packs of relief goods in the chosen disaster areas.

Picked were Taytay itself and San Andres village in Cainta and San Miguel village in Pasig.

In Taytay, Yap was accompanied by Mayor Ricardo Gacula in the distribution of the relief packs that the Agriculture department coordinated with Secretary Esperanza Cabral and Undersecretary Celia Yangco of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

The department has also put in place a P100-million emergency loan (in kind) for vendors in flood-hit public markets of Metro Manila.

Yap has ordered strict monitoring of price movements in the entire food supply chain to trace and stop any undue spike in the costs of basic commodities as a result of Ondoy and Pepeng.

NFA and relief centers

The Agriculture department-attached National Food Authority (NFA) continued to operate four relief centers accepting donations from the public for distribution to evacuees in government evacuation centers.

The authority has turned four of its major warehouses into temporary relief centers— Uniden Warehouse at Food Terminal Inc. Compound in Taguig City, NFA Visayas Warehouse at Visayas Avenue in Quezon City, NFA Kingswood Warehouse at 22 Quirino Avenue, Baesa, Quezon City and NFA Antipolo Warehouse at Manuel L. Quezon Avenue Extension, Antipolo City.

Llanesca T. Panti, Jun Medina, Cris G. Odronia, Camille Bianca Lopez, Ruben D. Manahan 4th And Ira Karen Ap

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