GMA orders SSS, GSIS to speed up aid for Leyte victims

President Arroyo ordered the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Social Security System (SSS) yesterday to give immediate assistance to victims of the landslide that buried the village of Guinsaugon in Saint Bernard, Southern Leyte.

She likewise ordered that immediate rehabilitation efforts for the victims begin anew.

Mrs. Arroyo, along with Japanese Ambassador Ryuichiro Yamazaki and several officials, toured the devastated area to assess the needs there.

Mrs. Arroyo ordered GSIS president Winston Garcia, who was with her yesterday, to immediately provide assistance to victims.

Garcia said government employees who suffered losses may be granted an assistance loan of P100,000 and a housing loan of P500,000. They are also entitled to salary compensation for a maximum of 18 months.

The Department of Agrarian Reform said it is ready to provide assistance while the Department of Public Works and Highways has begun clearing roads leading to what was once Guinsaugon so that trucks carrying emergency supplies could come in.

So far, the cost of providing assistance to victims has reached P7 million and is rising, according to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Southern Leyte Gov. Rosette Lerias briefed Mrs. Arroyo on the situation as local and international rescue workers, including dozens of US Marines, continue to search for survivors and bodies.

US Marines have set up generators and floodlights so search and rescue efforts could continue through the night.

Lerias asked Mrs. Arroyo for an aerial survey of the province to help them find a site to resettle survivors of the landslide as well as thousands of residents evacuated from nearby villages at risk of further landslides.

Beer and tobacco tycoon Lucio Tan has pledged to fund the resettlement site development, she said.

With rain continuing to drench the area, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau found four areas in Saint Bernard where evacuated villagers could seek shelter. The bureau is looking for more areas where refugees could be resettled.

National Disaster Coordinating Council chairman Glenn Rabonza said a group of American geologists is coming to conduct an aerial survey of the area. "They will be coming here soon." Rabonza told Mrs. Arroyo.

Japanese Ambassador Yamazaki told Mrs. Arroyo and Lerias that geological experts from the Japanese International Cooperation Inc. (JICA) had already arrived in Tacloban City yesterday morning and were on their way here to conduct the aerial survey.

He said the aerial survey was part of the assistance that his government has offered to the Philippines. — With Paolo Romero, Katherine Adraneda, Edu Punay, Mayen Jaymalin