Stores looted in Davao town

MANILA, Philippines - Starving typhoon survivors in Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley have reportedly looted groceries and shops after the delivery of relief goods took too long to arrive, a rescue official said yesterday.

“Local officials monitored the desperate scene in the early aftermath of Pablo’s onslaught in the isolated southern town of Cateel,” Cedric Daep, a provincial public safety official, told AFP.

“The food aid took so long to arrive that the locals broke into whatever building left standing in search of something to eat,” Daep added.          

In a briefing with local officials, President Aquino questioned the local police for failing to prevent the looting.

Reports said 17,000 bags of rice were lost when residents ransacked a rice warehouse in Cateel, a coastal town near where the eye of the typhoon made landfall on Tuesday.

Aquino demanded an explanation from the regional police director who told him they were unaware of the incident.

“It’s not an excuse not to know what happened in your AOR (area of responsibility),” he said.

But Lt. Col. Lyndon Paniza, spokesman of the 10th Infantry Division, said the supposed looting also happened in Barangay Tapia, Montevista, Compostela Valley.

But he refused to call it looting, saying the affected residents took possession of sacks of rice from a submerged warehouse and distributed it to their colleagues.

“It was not looting actually. The affected residents happened to find wet sacks of rice, which they distributed to their neighbors,” Paniza said.

He said the incident triggered a stampede among local residents because the distribution was not organized.

Officials said floods and landslides trapped some 150,000 people for three days in Cateel and the nearby towns of Baganga and Boston, where they said 97 percent of buildings were flattened or unroofed.

Daep said the region suffered its last strong typhoon in 1922, and has little expertise in coping with the disaster.

“You have to organize (pre-disaster) evacuation, relief distribution systems, and putting up temporary shelters... They were not prepared,” he said.

He said the priority was to ensure a reliable supply of food, safe water, shelter and clothing to the displaced victims, which the national government said included more than 200,000 people who have lost their homes.

“We have been receiving reports of people getting sick because they had been drinking contaminated water,” he said.

The official urged local governments in disaster-affected areas to help their people instead of waiting for the national government to organize relief and rehabilitation.

“They should organize cash- or food-for-work programs to build shelters for the displaced,” Daep said. 

Navy spokesman Omar Tonsay said a Philippine Navy vessel carrying 31 tons of emergency relief and 132 volunteer aid workers reached Baganga on Thursday.

An appeal written on shattered galvanized sheets asking for donations was posted along major thoroughfares in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental.

Relief operations are still being done in all typhoon-ravaged areas, particularly in far-flung and inner communities where residents have yet to receive help.

These areas are located in New Bataan and Monkayo towns in Compostela Valley and in Cateel, Boston and Baganga in Davao Oriental.

“Our government is doing all it can to address the basic needs of everybody displaced by Pablo, including those in the lowlands, but we are just prioritizing our efforts in reaching out to the severely affected residents in far-flung communities, which for days have yet to receive any help,” Paniza said.

Meanwhile, the death toll from Pablo may hit the 1,000 mark as the number of missing persons has increased to 533.

Lt. Col. Antonio Florendo, commander of the 66th Infantry Battalion whose headquarters was among the structures destroyed by rampaging floodwaters, reported the deployment of 15 composite teams to retrieve more bodies in Compostela Valley. – With Edith Regalado