Efforts to rebuild lives start as death toll rises

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The time to rebuild has come, said an official of one of the worst hit areas of super typhoon “Pablo.”

Compostela Valley provincial administrator Isabel Melendrez yesterday said efforts to rebuild lives and communities should start now even as death continues to haunt the region with the recovery of more bodies buried under mud and logs.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said that as of yesterday, the death toll from Pablo (international name Bopha) had jumped to 1,043 from 1,020 the other day.

The NDRRMC said at least 844 remained missing including the 315 fishermen who sailed out to sea even before Pablo pummeled Mindanao last Dec. 4.

Compostela Valley was hardest hit by the typhoon, which affected 139,653 families or 687,095 individuals in the province alone.

 “The focus of our operation now slowly shifts to how we will rebuild the lives of those who have been affected,” Melendrez said.

She stressed that livelihood program is also aimed at addressing the issue on mendicancy among the victims who resorted to begging from motorists, particularly in the towns of New Bataan, Compostela, Monkayo and Montevista.

But the official was quick to point out that relief assistance for the affected residents shall continue with the help of donors, both international and local institutions.

She said the provincial government also embarked on a specific nutrition program involving feeding for children and lactating mothers.

She said some 60,000 workers were left jobless after the storm wiped out the province’s 14,700 hectares of banana plantations.

Melendrez said the first step that would be taken is the proper identification of the affected families by the barangay officials.

“Properly identified villagers would be issued a family access card which could be used to access relief and medical assistance and proposed livelihood programs,” Melendrez said, adding the card would also prevent non-typhoon victims from abusing the assistance.

She said corresponding livelihood programs would also be made available to the victims depending on their locality.

Infra damage hits P24 B

Benito Ramos, NDRRMC executive director and Office of Civil Defense (OCD) administrator, said Pablo’s damage to private and government infrastructures has ballooned to P24.1 billion.

“We are now shifting to retrieval operations. But we are not losing hope that we could still find survivors out there,” he said.

As of yesterday, at least 6,608 families composed of 25,953 individuals remained in 63 evacuation centers in  Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental.

“A total of 701,224 families or 6,203,826 individuals from 2,910 barangays of 313 municipalities, 40 cities and 34 provinces were affected by Pablo,” Ramos said.

‘Pablo’ affects sugar production

The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said yesterday that Pablo affected at least six to eight percent of sugarcane production in Bukidnon, which is equivalent to a loss of 30,000 tons of sugar.

SRA administrator Regina Martin said the volume of production loss would not significantly affect sugar production for the current crop year.

Martin said all of the more than 30 sugar mills in the country have already produced 30 percent of the target volume for the current crop year.

The milling season for the current crop year began last September and would end in August next year. 

The SRA has set a sugar production target of 2.356 million metric tons for cropping year 2012-2013, up by five percent from the total raw sugar production volume of 2.243 million metric tons for 2011-2012 crop year. – With Jaime Laude, Czeriza Valencia