FIVE people died after the van they were riding was swept away by strong currents caused by shear line-induced rains in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan.
Jerry Alili, head of the Palawan provincial risk reduction and management office, said the province has experienced “record-breaking” rains in the past several days due to the shear line af-fecting southern Luzon, causing flooding in Puerto Princesa and several towns.
“That’s 12 times our monthly allocation, it poured in within 24 hours,” said Alili.
He said the van’s engine malfunctioned while crossing a flood-ed road in Inagawan last Sunday.
“The vehicle was swept away. Twelve were onboard the vehi-cle, seven of them were rescued,” said Alili. The five others were initially reported missing.
“Search and rescue teams retrieved the five bodies; they were among the passengers of the van that was swept away. Three were retrieved on Monday while the two others were recovered by responders on Tuesday morning,” said Alili.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said yesterday that more than P575,000 worth of food and non-food relief have been provided to families affected by adverse weather due to the shear line in the Mimaropa and Eastern Vi-sayas Regions.
Data from the DSWD’s Disaster Response Operations Man-agement, Information, and Communication (DROMIC) showed that as of Tuesday, P550,129.80 worth of humanitarian aid had been released by the agency while P25,000 worth of assistance had been provided by the different local government units (LGUs) to their affected constituents.
A total of 34,692 families or 120,381 persons are affected in 195 barangays in regions IV-B (Mimaropa) and VIII (Eastern Visayas).
There are 2,809 families or 11,149 persons displaced which in-cludes the 2,223 families or 8,804 persons currently taking tem-porary shelter in 59 evacuation centers and the 586 families or 2,345 persons temporarily staying with their relatives or friends.
The DSWD said it still has over P2.767 billion worth of funds and stockpiles of food and non-food relief items on standby, ready for distribution to the families affected by the continuous rain and flooding caused by the shear line.
