Aquino urged to declare nat’l day of mourning for ‘Yolanda’ fatalities

MANILA, Philippines – Opposition Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito on Tuesday urged President Benigno Aquino III to declare a national day of mourning for the people who perished from supetyphoon “Yolanda.”

Ejercito, in a statement, also urged Aquino to order all government agencies and schools in the country to fly the Philippine flag at half-staff “to signify sympathy and respect to the families and victims of the super typhoon.”

The senator made the proposals as he lauded the President for declaring a state of national calamity.




Aquino’s move, he said, came just hours after he filed a resolution Monday, calling for the declaration of a state of national calamity.

Ejercito said there was indeed a need to declare a state of national calamity to expedite the relief, rescue and rehabilitation efforts by the government and private sector, including international humanitarian assistance.

“This will also ensure to put a price freeze on the basic commodities, thus, will prevent the profiteering and hoarding of prime goods, medicines and petroleum products needed by the victims,” he  said.

“This move is just one of the steps to help the survivors of the super typhoon in rebuilding their lives and putting back normalcy in the affected regions,” the senator added.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

More than 10,000 feared dead in typhoon-ravaged Philippines

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — The death toll from a supertyphoon that decimated entire towns in the Philippines could soar well over 10,000, authorities warned Sunday, making it the country’s worst recorded natural disaster.

The horrifying estimates came as rescue workers appeared overwhelmed in their efforts to help countless survivors of Super Typhoon Haiyan, which sent tsunami-like waves and merciless winds rampaging across a huge chunk of the archipelago on Friday.


Police said they had deployed special forces to contain looters in Tacloban, the devastated provincial capital of Leyte, while the United States announced it had responded to a Philippine government appeal and would send military help.

“Tacloban is totally destroyed. Some people are losing their minds from hunger or from losing their families,” high school teacher Andrew Pomeda, 36, told AFP, as he warned of the increasing desperation of survivors.

“People are becoming violent. They are looting business establishments, the malls, just to find food, rice and milk… I am afraid that in one week, people will be dying from hunger.”

Authorities were struggling to even understand the sheer magnitude of the disaster, let alone react to it, with the regional police chief for Leyte saying 10,000 people were believed to have died in that province alone.






“We had a meeting last night with the governor and, based on the government’s estimates, initially there are 10,000 casualties (dead),” Chief Superintendent Elmer Soria told reporters in Tacloban.

“About 70 to 80 percent of the houses and structures along the typhoon’s path were destroyed.”

On the neighboring island of Samar, a local disaster chief said 300 people were killed in the small town of Baser.

He added another 2,000 were missing there and elsewhere on Samar, which was one of the first areas to be hit when Haiyan swept in from the Pacific Ocean with maximum sustained winds of 315 kilometers an hour.

Dozens more people were confirmed killed in other flattened towns and cities across a 600-kilometer (370-mile) stretch of islands through the central Philippines.

Deadliest natural disaster

The Philippines endures a seemingly never-ending pattern of deadly typhoons, earthquakes, volcano eruptions and other natural disasters.

This is because it is located along a typhoon belt and the so-called Ring of Fire, a vast Pacific Ocean region where many of Earth’s earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.

However, if the feared death toll of above 10,000 is correct, Haiyan would be the deadliest natural disaster ever recorded in the Philippines.

Until Haiyan, the deadliest disaster in the Philippines was in 1976, when a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 7.9 earthquake devastated the Moro Gulf on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, killing between 5,000 and 8,000 people.

Haiyan set other apocalyptic-style records with its winds making it the strongest typhoon in the world this year, and one of the most powerful ever recorded.

Witnesses in Tacloban recalled waves up to five meters (17 feet) high surging inland, while aerial photos showed entire neighborhoods destroyed with trees and buildings flattened by storm surges that reached deep inland.

“The effects are very similar to what I have seen in a tsunami rather than a typhoon,” the Philippine country director of the World Food Program, Praveen Agrawal, who visited Tacloban, told AFP.

“All the trees are bent over, the bark has been stripped off, the houses have been damaged. In many cases they have collapsed.”

In Washington, the Pentagon announced that US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had responded to a request from the Philippines for military aid.

“Secretary Hagel has directed US Pacific Command to support US government humanitarian relief operations in the Philippines in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan,” it said.

“The initial focus includes surface maritime search and rescue, medium-heavy helicopter lift support, airborne maritime search and rescue, fixed wing lift support and logistics enablers.”

United Nations leader Ban Ki-moon also pledged that UN humanitarian agencies would “respond rapidly to help people in need.”

Ban is “deeply saddened by the extensive loss of life” and devastation caused by Haiyan, said UN spokesman Martin Nesirky in a statement.

Haiyan moved out of the Philippines and into the South China Sea on Saturday, from where it tracked towards Vietnam.

Although it weakened out at sea, more than 600,000 people were evacuated in Vietnam ahead of its expected landfall on Monday morning.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Glimpses of devastation a day after ‘Yolanda’

ILOILO CITY – A day after Supertyphoon “Yolanda” unleashed its wrath, only glimpses of the devastation in the Visayas was possible as reports came in trickles from places that were still without power or means of communications.

At least 22 people were reported killed in Iloilo, northern Cebu, Roxas City in Capiz, and Aklan but the number was expected to increase since communication remained difficult in these places, along with Leyte province. Most of the worst hit areas were still inaccessible and had not submitted reports to Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Offices.

(Many more were reported dead in Leyte, with initial unofficial reports placing them over 100.)

Six people were reported dead in Iloilo, six more in Cebu, four in Antique and three each in Aklan and Capiz, according to initial reports as of Saturday afternoon.

Almost all houses on the coast or on island-villages were destroyed or badly damaged by strong winds and big waves. Fallen trees and electric posts blocked roads and rice fields were littered with blown off galvanized iron roofing.

The howling winds did not spare churches, municipal and school buildings and other structures made of concrete.

After the strong winds, badly hit municipalities were still threatened by flooding due to rising waters from upland areas.

In Negros Occidental, Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. wept on Saturday morning upon seeing so many poor people rendered homeless in Cadiz City.

Aside from Cadiz, also hard hit in Negros Occidental were the cities of Sagay and Escalante and Toboso town, said the Provincial Disaster Management Team.

A report from the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office showed at as of 6 a.m. on Saturday, 59,209 Negrenses were affected by the typhoon in 24 towns and cities in Negros Occidental and 12,992 were staying in 193 evacuation centers.





At least seven towns in northern Cebu remained isolated after being whipped by Yolanda.

Badly hit were Bogo City and the towns of Medellin, San Remegio, Daanbantayan on mainland Cebu and the municipalities of Sta Fe, Bantayan and Madridejos on Bantayan Island.

Local officials of the affected areas were appealing for help because the devastation was widespread.
“The devastation is overwhelming. We appeal for help from the national government and from international agencies and organizations,” said Iloilo provincial administrator Raul Banias after an aerial inspection of the worst-hit areas in northern and central Iloilo.

“If you see the devastation, you will cry,” said Mayor Patrick Escalante of Cadiz City, Negros Occidental, where at least 4,000 houses along the seashore and hinterland villages were destroyed.

Escalante appealed for food and other forms of assistance for the Cadiz victims to augment government help as the number of people in need was overwhelming.

The provinces of Capiz, Aklan, Antique and Iloilo were declared under a state of calamity by their respective provincial boards on Saturday to hasten the release of calamity funds.

Governor Marañon of Negros Occidental has asked the provincial board for a special session to declare the province under a state of calamity.

Cebu was already under a state of calamity following last month’s magnitude 7.2 earthquake.

Most of Panay Island was  without electricity for a second day on Saturday. Power was restored to parts of Iloilo City Friday evening.







Communication has been hampered by lack of telephone connections and mobile signals in municipalities.

The national road connecting Iloilo with Aklan and Capiz was impassable as of Saturday morning due to fallen trees and flooding.

Iloilo Vice Governor Raul Tupas said the supertyphoon also wiped out the livelihood of residents in coastal villages.

He cited the island village of Malangabang in Concepcion in Iloilo where at least 250 fishing boats were destroyed.

Tupas was acting as governor and chairman of the provincial disaster council because Governor Arthur Defensor was in Manila to attend the burial of his 14-month-old grandaughter.

In the capital town of Kalibo in Aklan, the ABL Sports Complex which served as an evacuation center and provincial command center was damaged when strong winds tore off a part of its roof.

At least 11,461 houses were destroyed and 6,855 others were damaged according to reports from six of the 15 towns of Aklan, according to Galo Ibardolaza, executive officer of the provincial disaster council.

“This is worse than Typhoon ‘Frank’,” said Aklan Gov. Florencio Miraflores, referring to the typhoon that devastated Aklan and other parts of Western Visayas in 2008.

Miraflores said it could take a month to fully restore electricity in the province due to the number of fallen electric posts and damaged connections.

At least 80 percent of houses and buildings, including the Immaculate Conception Metropolitan Cathedral and provincial capitol, were damaged or destroyed in Capiz, according to Gov. Victor Tanco.

“This is the worst calamity experienced by Capiz. We could not believed what happed,” Tanco told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

In Roxas City, shopping malls, churches and government buildings were damaged.

“It looks like Roxas City was crumpled. I have not seen a house without damage,” said Mayo Ala Celino.

Celino said assistance was also hampered by lack of personnel because the houses of most city hall employees and officials, including himself, had also been damaged.

In nothern Cebu, the towns of Bogo, Medellin, San Remegio, Daanbantayan, Sta. Fe, Bantayan and Madridejos were without communication, power and water supplies while only motorcycles and small vehicles could navigate the roads because of fallen trees.

Medellin Vice Mayor Alfonso Lim said they too needed food assistance for their people as the municipal government was unable to operate because government buildings were badly damaged.

The typhoon blew off the roofs of the public market, sports complex and public schools among others as about 70 percent to 80 percent of their houses, government structures and infrastructure were damaged by the typhoon.

In neighboring San Remegio town, about 90 percent of the houses were without roofs, said Councilor Jun Verallo.

Daanbantayan Mayor Augusto Corro said that at least 14 persons were injured by broken glass and flying GI sheets.

About 80 percent of the houses on Bantayan Island were destroyed.

In Sogod and Tabogon towns, fallen trees covered the roads. A ten-wheel truck carrying animal feed fell on its side in Tabogon.

Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III urged Cebuanos not to be disheartedned but to rise together.

“Let us be strong. We’ve gone through several calamities in the past. I know we can do this. We’re determined to surpass these adversities. Let’s continue to pray. Let’s continue to be safe,” he said.

(Reports from Nestor P. Burgos Jr., Carla P. Gomez, Ador Mayol, Jhunnex Napallacan and Doris C. Bongcac, Inquirer Visayas)

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Bohol quake toll now at 155

MANILA, Philippines – The number of fatalities from the destructive earthquake that jolted parts of the Visayas and Mindanao jumped to 155, authorities said Wednesday.

Over 3 million people were affected by the killer quake.

In Bohol, Police Officer 3 Carl John Legazpi, operations clerk of the provincial office, said on Wednesday that there were 145 killed in the province as of 6:30 p.m.

The town with the most fatalities was Loon with 42 deaths, followed by Maribojoc with 15 and Antequera with 13,

The two individuals trapped inside the Congressman  Natalio Castillo Sr. Memorial Hospital in Bohol that collapsed during the earthquake were recovered dead, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council spokesman Major Rey Balido said.

There were 291 persons injured and 23 missing.

The Office of Civil Defense in Central Visayas said that nine people were killed in Cebu and one was recorded in Siquijor.

Balido said that 593,561 families or 3,017,814 persons in three provinces were affected. There were 51 evacuation centers put up in Bohol and Cebu City. Some 30,359 of these individuals were housed in temporary shelters. The NDRRMC’s official records in the afternoon listed 144 deaths.

Lieutenant General Roy Deveraturda, commander of Armed Forces Central Command based in Cebu, said that there were no more isolated towns and villages in Bohol, but it would take time to reach some of these areas.

“You just have to take a long route to reach a particular place. While we were hit by a very strong tremor, I believe the response was good. All agencies helped each other,” he said.

NDRRMC said that there were 23 bridges impassable in Bohol, while five roads were closed to traffic.

The Department of Public Works and Highways said that based on initial assessment, damage to roads and bridges has reached P57.8 million in Bohol. In Cebu, damage to properties was pegged at P17.67 million.

The earthquake also crumbled “signature churches” of the province, which were built during the Spanish era. Some of the hills of the famous Chocolate Hills were deformed.

Bohol and Cebu were placed under state of calamity on Tuesday.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net