President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has thumbed down the recommendation of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) to place the entire country under a state of calamity due to the devastation caused by Severe Tropical Storm “Paeng” (international code name Nalgae).
This developed as nearly 100 people have died in one of the most destructive storms to lash the Philippines this year with dozens more feared missing after villagers fled in the wrong direction and got buried in a boulder-laden mudslide. Almost 2 million others were swamped by floods in several provinces, officials said Monday.
At least 53 of 98 people who died—mostly in flooding and landslides—were from Maguindanao province in a Muslim autonomous region, which was swamped by unusually heavy rains set off by Tropical Storm Nalgae. The storm blew out into the South China Sea on Sunday, leaving a trail of destruction in a large swath of the archipelago.
Damage isolated to some areas
IN a news conference in Noveleta, Cavite, last Monday, Marcos explained he made the decision to set aside the proposal for a national state of emergency since the heavy damage caused by the storm was isolated to only some areas.
“The damage was highly localized. We’re talking about the east coast of Quezon, here in Cavite, and then Maguindanao,” the President said.
He noted other areas, which were affected by Paeng such as the Visayas, Regions 1 and 2 did not register an “extensive damage” from Paeng.
Instead of a nationwide coverage, Marcos said, he prefers the declaration of state of calamity to be localized.
“I think we will focus better if we stay with the calamity status as we have now,” Marcos said.
Last Saturday, NDRRMC announced its recommendation to the President to declare a one-year national state of calamity to help in the recovery of Paeng-hit areas.
The declaration would have allowed local government units (LGU) to tap their calamity funds.
Cavite flood-control plan
IN the same event, the President also said he wants the creation of a long-term flood-control plan in Cavite after it was inundated from Paeng’s torrential rains.
Marcos expressed concern over the eroded dike in the said province, which aggravated the flooding in the area.
“While the winds were not that strong. [Paeng brought about] large amounts of water. Our flood control was unable to handle this and the waters overflowed from dikes and reached the towns. That is what happened,” Marcos explained after he led an aerial ocular inspection over the Cavite province area.
He said a long-term plan should be crafted to contain floodwaters even during strong typhoons.
Last Sunday, the local government unit of Noveleta reported their river wall near the Ylang-Ylang River was destroyed by heavy flooding caused by Paeng.
Many of the residents in the municipality were forced to climb to higher floors or the roof of their homes to escape rising floods.
Some of them stayed in the evacuation center in Barangay San Jose II in Noveleta, which was visited by Marcos and by the Department of Social Welfare and Development for relief aid distribution.
The government is currently distributing P50 million worth of relief goods for the around 18,000 families, who were evacuated from Cavite.
PRC rescue operations
The Philippine National Red Cross (PRC), meanwhile, said it has rescued some 279 people in Aklan, Batangas, Catanduanes, Cavite, Cotabato City, Laguna, and the National Capital Region from rapidly rising floodwaters amid Paeng’s onslaught.
Among those rescued were patients of San Juan District Hospital in San Juan, Batangas, which was breached with waist-deep floodwater.
“The Philippine Red Cross has a team of reliable volunteers and staff members and trained for search and rescue,” PRC Chairman and CEO Richard J. Gordon.
The PRC emergency responders used rescue boats, 6 x 6 trucks, Humvees and an amphibian. Rescue operations are still ongoing as of this writing.
Kusiong’s grief
A large contingent of rescuers with bulldozers and backhoes resumed retrieval work in southern Kusiong village in hard-hit Maguindanao, where as many as 80 to 100 people, including entire families, are feared to have been buried by a boulder-laden mudslide or swept away by flash floods that started overnight Thursday, said Naguib Sinarimbo, the interior minister for the Bangsamoro autonomous region run by former separatist guerrillas under a peace pact.
The government’s main disaster-response agency also reported 69 people were injured in the onslaught and at least 63 others remain missing.
More than 1.9 million people were lashed by the storm, including more than 975,000 villagers who fled to evacuation centers or homes of relatives.
More than 4,100 houses and 16,260 hectares of rice and other crops were damaged by floodwaters at a time when the country was bracing for a looming food crisis because of global supply disruptions, officials said.
Sinarimbo said the official tally of missing people did not include most of those feared missing in the huge mudslide that hit Kusiong because entire families may have been buried and no member was left to provide names and details to authorities.
With AP and Claudeth Mocon–Ciriaco