THE death toll from super typhoon “Egay” yesterday rose to 25 as damage to infrastructure and agriculture increased to P5.47 billion and the affected people reached more than two million.
Egay is so far the country’s deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclone for this year. The population it affected is the largest compared to four previous tropical cyclones this year — “Amang,” “Betty,” “Chedeng,” and “Dodong.”
Meanwhile, severe tropical storm “Falcon” intensified into a typhoon, from severe tropical storm, on Sunday night. Falcon, which is not expected to make landfall, was some 1,020 km east northeast of extreme northern Luzon as of 4 p.m. yesterday, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said.
Falcon is not directly affecting the country but is enhancing the southwest monsoon which is bringing rains to parts of Luzon, including Metro Manila, and the Visayas.
Falcon may exit the Philippine area of responsibility on Tuesday afternoon or evening, PAGASA said.
The Camp Aguinaldo-based National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said 12 of the deaths were in Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).
Eight died in the Ilocos region, three in the Calabarzon region, and two in the Western Visayas region.
It said only two of these deaths — one in Calabarzon and one Western Visayas — have been validated while the rest are still subject to validation process.
Twenty are still missing (all validated) and subject to ongoing search and rescue operations and 52 were injured (39 validated and 13 for validation), the NDRRMC said.
The NDRRMC also reported P5.47 billion damage to infrastructure and agriculture.
It said damage to infrastructure in Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas and CAR is now at P3.51 billion, with the bulk (P2.25 billion) from CAR.
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) reported P5.2 billion worth of damage to infrastructure — P1.053 billion for roads, P162.6 million for bridges, and P3.982 billion for flood-control structures.
The NDRRMC said damage to agriculture was placed at P1.96 billion in Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Western Visayas, BARMM and CAR.
Ilocos registered a P1.02 billion in damage to agriculture while Central Luzon had P595 million.
The NDRRMC also reported that 654,837 families or 2,397,336 individuals were affected. They are from 4,111 barangays in 13 regions — Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Mindanao, Northern Mindanao, Davao, Soccsksargen, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) and the National Capital Region (NCR) or Metro Manila.
Of the number, 13,828 families (50,987 individuals) are still in 737 evacuation centers and 63,086 families (262,008 individuals) are living with relatives or friends.
Central Luzon had the highest number of affected population at 329,470 families (1,149,314 individuals), followed by Cagayan with 133,999 families (585,818 individuals) and CAR with 102,648 families or 354,060 individuals.
STATE OF CALAMITY
The NDRRMC said the provincial governments of Ilocos Sur, Bataan, Cavite, Abra and Mountain Province have placed their respective areas under state of calamity.
Cagayan province said it is also under a state of calamity.
The NDRRMC said the towns of Luna and Bangar in La Union; Sablayan in Occidental Mindoro; Sanchez Mira and Abulug in Cagayan; Paombong and Pulilan in Bulacan; and Macabebe, San Luis, San Simon at Santo Tomas in Pampanga are also under state of calamity.
The Department of Education said 169 schools in nine regions were damaged by Egay. These are in CAR, NCR, Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, and Eastern Visayas.
“The total estimated cost for reconstruction and rehabilitation is at P810 million,” the DepEd said.
Meanwhile, 68 schools in Cagayan Valley, CAR, Central Luzon and Western Visayas are being used as evacuation centers.
Under DepEd Order No.37 issued by Vice President and DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte schools may be used as an immediate evacuation sites in times of calamities but not for more than 15 days. -30-
ASSISTANCE
Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said he has directed field offices of the Department of Health to quickly release of health emergency allowances (HEAs) to health workers who are in areas affected by Egay and who served during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’ll ask our people to concentrate in Region 1 and 2, which were hit by Egay so that our health workers there can use additional funds,” said Herbosa.
He said the move is similar to what the DOH did for medical frontliners in Bicol.
“I have instructed our people to give the allowances for health workers in Albay because Mayon Volcano was erupting. The people will need the extra money,” he said.
All medical frontliners are entitled to P5,000 for every month they served during the period of State of Public Health Emergency. Delays in the release and distribution of the health emergency allowances, however, have constantly hounded the DOH.
Herbosa said the DOH is exerting efforts to hasten the distribution of all the delayed allowances.
“The idea is to hasten it and make it faster. We will get it to them by the end of this year. Those who won’t get them this year, they will receive it next year,” he said.
“Hopefully, we can already distribute all the allowances for 2021, 2022, and 2023 by 2024. They shouldn’t worry. It is rather slow but we will give it,” added Herbosa.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development government has distributed some P131.9 million worth of assistance to over 2.6 million people in 13 regions affected by Egay and the southwest monsoon.
This includes family food packs, non-food items and cash aid under the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis.
At the House, Speaker Martin Romualdez and Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co, chair of the House committee on appropriations, filed House Bill (HB) No.8350 which seeks to make the secretary of the Department of the Public Works and Highways (DPWH) the vice chairman of the NNDRRMC.
Under the bill, the public works secretary is added to the NDDRMC’s composition to oversee infrastructure rehabilitation and repair in times of natural disasters by amending some provisions of Republic Act (RA) No.10121, also known as the “Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010.”
The NDRRMC, which is chaired by the defense secretary, has other Cabinet secretaries as vice chairmen for their respective sectors, which excludes infrastructure.
“It has been observed, however, that because of the immense destruction sustained by various government infrastructures during these disasters, many of which damages suffer from state of disrepair, it becomes paramount that another vice chairpersonship is created for the infrastructure rehabilitation and repair be headed by the Secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways,” the bill said. — With Myla Iglesias, Ashzel Hachero, Jocelyn Montemayor, Gerard Naval and Wendell Vigilia
