GOVERNMENT will raise an initial P2 billion to help affected residents and areas in the Visayas and Mindanao that were devastated by typhoon “Odette” over the weekend, according to President Duterte who visited Southern Leyte on Saturday.
The President said the amount will be sourced from different government agencies.
The 17 mayors of Metro Manila have agreed to donate at least P100 million to Odette victims, Benhur Abalos, chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), said yesterday.
As calls for assistance mounted, supporters of Vice President Leni Robredo packed boxes of relief goods at the presidential aspirant’s headquarters-cum-relief operations center to Siargao Island.
Robredo has been leading relief operations and assessment of the ground situation. She has visited hard-hit areas such as Bohol province and Cebu City. Odette, which has left the country, made landfall in Carcar, Cebu, and most parts of Cebu were placed under Signal No. 4.
In Bohol, communication lines and power supply remained unavailable two days after Odette pummeled it, according Bohol Gov. Arthur Yap. The province is home to some of the country’s popular tourist destinations, such as the Loboc River, which overflowed.
“It is very clear that the damage sustained by Bohol is great and all-encompassing,” he said in video posted on his Facebook account. “People have suffered greatly in terms of destroyed homes and agricultural losses.”
He appealed for relief donations, especially drinking water.
Odette, among the deadliest of the tropical storms to strike the country this year, made nine landfalls, with a massive trail of destruction also reported in the provinces of Cebu, Leyte, Surigao del Norte, including the popular Siargao surfing destination, and Dinagat Islands.
Duterte, during a situational briefing in Maasin in Southern Leyte, said government funds are limited because most of the budget has been spent for programs against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
“There’s a little money left so I can help you… (but) we can’t release the budget immediately… what we’re planning to do now is get portions of the budget from different offices… this amount will be divided among all the areas that were hit by the typhoon,” he said in Visayan in a video of the meeting that was released yesterday.
Duterte clarified he did not directly say last Friday that the government no longer has funds available and could not help those affected by Odette. What he mean, he said, is that the budget was already a “bit tight because we’ve poured all our resources into fighting COVID” and the government did not expect that Odette will happen.
“We’re trying to scrape whatever we can from the savings of the government,” he said adding a huge part of savings has been spent on COVID efforts.
The President assured the typhoon-hit communities that help will arrive.
“Let’s not talk about how long the help will arrive. Give us a little bit of time because the budget, the year is about to end and a huge part of our savings was spent on COVID.
There’s no limit even until now for as long as the people need it. So that’s what we’re going to work on,” Duterte said adding that in the meantime food aid will be provided to the affected individuals.
The President on Saturday conducted an aerial inspection of parts of Siargao Island in Surigao del Norte, Dinagat Islands, and Maasin City and inspected the damage at the Surigao airport. He also led the distribution of relief goods and cash assistance to the affected communities in Maasin.
He designated Social Welfare Secretary Rolando Bautista as crisis manager to oversee assistance to Surigao del Norte and Dinagat Island.
Bautista will be assisted by Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad, chief of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council and administrator of the Office of Civil Defense, said Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said yesterday.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development said that as of 6 p.m. yesterday, some 301,400 families or around 1.18 million persons from 2,983 barangays in nine regions have been affected by Odette.
Some 103,270 families or 413,744 persons are staying in 2,302 evacuation centers in Regions IV-B (Mimaropa), V (Bicol), VI (Western Visayas), VII (Central Visayas), VIII (Eastern Visayas), IX (Zamboanga Peninsula) X (Northern Mindanao), XI (Davao) and Caraga while 13,156 families or 50,314 persons are temporarily staying with their relatives in Regions IV-A, VI, VII and Caraga.
DSWD said at least 28,269 houses were damaged during the typhoon.
More than P10.556 million worth of food and non-food aid have been distributed to the affected areas while more than 109k food packs and P101.3 million of the DSWD’s quick reaction fund (QRF) is on standby.
Sen. Christopher Go said that to assist in the immediate recovery of affected areas, the President tasked the health, agriculture, energy, human settlements and urban development, communications and technology, and social welfare and development departments, as well as the and the National Housing Authority and Office of the Civil Defense to expedite the delivery of assistance to areas in greatest need.
He said the DPWH was ordered to clear roads and provide equipment to affected LGUs; the DSWD to ensure the continuous distribution of relief goods; the DOH to provide additional medical supplies and augment health personnel in the Dinagat Islands; the DOE to speed up the return of electricity; and the DICT to augment mobile cell sites and provide satellite phones and other modes of communication to affected areas.
Social Welfare Secretary Joselito Bautista was named crisis manager for the Surigao del Norte and Dinagat Islands. Office of Civil Defense administrator Ricardo Jalad will assist him.
He said the Philippine Navy and Philippine Coast Guard were requested to send ships to support the delivery of supplies, equipment and food to Surigao del Norte and Dinagat Islands. The Maritime Industry Authority was tasked to assess the condition of the ships and assist in the carriage of relief goods.
He said the BRP Ang Pangulo will also be deployed to serve as a floating hospital to the said provinces since existing hospitals have been damaged.
Go, chairman of the Senate committee on health, urged health authorities to ensure the strict implementation of health and safety protocols, provide the necessary medicines since the typhoon could exacerbate the spread of COVID-19 and other diseases as evacuees are forced to stay in crowded temporary shelters.
OVP OPERATIONS
Robredo, the opposition’s presidential bet, spoke with families who lost their homes to personally find out what they need most urgently. She also met with local government officials to coordinate relief and rebuilding efforts.
She visited barangays Sapangdaku and Guadalupe, where she said at least 800 houses were completely destroyed.
The Katipunan, Quezon City hub has been busy since Friday with donations pouring in and Robredo’s supporters working round the clock since she called for help for the thousands affected by Odette.
The MMDA has sent a rescue team to Maasin in Leyte. Abalos said the team have brought a chainsaw and a filtration system to help road-clearing operations.
MMDA personnel will also be sent to Bohol, Abalos said.
Caritas Philippines appealed to the faithful to send help, either In cash or in kind.
Caritas Philippines executive secretary Fr Antonio Labiao said Caritas is accepting cash donations through the Caritas’ MetroBank bank accounts and Gcash, or in-kind donations.
It can be deposited in account name CBCP Caritas Filipinas Foundation Inc.; Account No.: 632-7-632-02788-1; Swift Code: MBTCPHMM, or sent through GCash with number. 0915.209.4092.
ELECTRICITY
Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas sought the help of the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) in quickly restoring Cebu’s power distribution lines that were knocked down by Odette.
“We are appealing to our good friend, Meralco chairman Manny Pangilinan, for help,” said Gullas, who represents Cebu province’s first district. “It might be possible for Meralco to send equipment and personnel to help reinstall Cebu’s downed electricity poles and lines.”
While the Visayan Electric Co. (VECO) and other power stakeholders are doing their best to fix the lack of power, Gullas said, Cebu needs all the help it can get in swiftly reviving electricity supply to households.
As of noon yesterday, VECO’s franchise area, which covers a population of 1.73 million, was still reeling from a total blackout. VECO distributes electricity to he cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Talisay and Naga, and in the municipalities of Liloan, Consolacion, Minglanilla and San Fernando.
“Getting our electricity back on should be our No. 1 priority, because it will help solve other problems, including the lack of water. We do not want the lack of running water to cause public health problems,” Gullas said.
The Metropolitan Cebu Water District earlier said it has managed to provide limited water supply to 30 percent of its franchise area with the use of emergency power generating sets.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines said as of noon yesterday, 22 138-kiloVolt (kV) lines and seven 230-kV lines remained unavailable affecting parts of Cebu, the entire province of Bohol and parts of Leyte and Samar Islands.
NGCP said it mobilized its line crews to conduct ground patrols and inspect and assess the impact of the typhoon to its operations and facilities as simultaneous restoration activities are being conducted on areas already accessible.
The Department of Energy (DOE) said in an online briefing yesterday the current timeline to completely restore power supply in Visayas and Mindanao is before Christmas Day.
“We still have some sectors that need field assessments. We are requesting particularly the National Electrification Administration (NEA) and National Power Corp. (NPC) to finalize timelines for the full restoration,” said Mario Marasigan, DOE director.
NEA said its latest count of households whose power supplies were affected reached 1.2 million while NPC said affected households serviced by its Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG) power plants in off-grid areas are at 274,000 for a total of 1.47 million households.
NEA said Odette affected 73 electric cooperatives and only 32 were operating normally yesterday. Ten were still experiencing partial power interruptions — those in Palawan, Iloilo, Guimaras, Leyte, Misamis Oriental, Lanao del Norte, Davao Oriental, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur.
TRANSPO
The Department of Transportation said it has mobilized its personnel, facilities, assets and resources to answer calls for assistance.
The Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) over the weekend said it allowed vessels to sail after Odette left the Philippine area of responsibility. The agency also called on domestic shipowners to prioritize the transport of needed relief goods.
Robert Empedrad, MARINA administrator, said domestic vessels were allowed to sail to prevent passengers from being stranded, and to assist in the delivery of relief goods.
As for passengers who were left stranded at the affected ports, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade said he has instructed the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) to provide them with light meals and to ensure their safety and convenience.
The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said it has started efforts to restore airport operations in areas affected by Odette to include interim measures to resume operations without compromising safety, repair of damaged passenger terminal buildings, other infrastructure and installations, and to check on the condition of CAAP workers who were affected by the typhoon.
As of 3 a.m. yesterday, Mactan Cebu International Airport has resumed operations of over 60 flights, of which Cebu Pacific had 29 flights, Philippines Airlines (PAL) had 23 flights and AirAsia Philippines resumed 10 flights.
But PAL said yesterday afternoon it will be compelled to adjust schedules and/or cancel certain international flights in the next few days due to government-imposed restrictions on overseas arrivals at Manila airport, and the extended closure of typhoon-damaged Mactan Cebu airport.
TELECOMS
PLDT Inc.’s network restoration update as of 9 a.m. yesterday said 96 percent of its wireless service in Mindanao are up. The sites still down were mostly in Surigao del Norte including Siargao, Misamis Oriental and Dinagat Islands.
PLDT said its fixed service is 99 percent up, with six remaining nodes down due to commercial power failure.
In the Visayas, 78 percent of its wireless sites are up.
Other nodes were down are due to transmission breaks, the telco said.
For fixed services, 54 percent of nodes were up, with the down nodes mostly due to commercial power failure, the telco added. Major areas for restoration were Cebu, Bohol, Leyte and Negros provinces.
In Palawan, the telco said majority were still for restoration but work was challenged as several roads were not passable.
Meanwhile, as of 6 p.m. of December 17, Globe Telecom Inc. said it has restored services in Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay and Bukidnon.
Globe said field operations teams in Visayas and Mindanao were continuously working to restore mobile and data services in areas affected by typhoon Odette.
PLDT, Smart and Globe Telecom also provide free telecom services and relief goods in affected areas.
PLDT said it delivered its first tranche of relief goods to the hardest-hit areas in the Visayas and is also giving bill rebates and its wireless unit Smart was crediting calamity load assistance to severely affected customers in Visayas and Mindanao.
Globe has set up 16 Tawag and Libreng Charging stations in the Visayas and Mindanao regions to help families connect with their loved ones.
Globe said ongoing service restorations in various areas affected by the typhoon have been hampered by the prolonged lack of commercial power.
Since Friday, December 17, Globe has restored services in Bukidnon, Agusan del Sur, Camiguin, Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga Sibugay.
In the aftermath of typhoon Odette, about 40 towers were affected of which about 20 towers in Cebu. — With Noel Talacay, Wendell Vigilia, Raymond Africa, Myla Iglesias, Jed Macapagal, Gerard Naval and Reuters
