Yolanda death toll climbs to 5,719

MANILA, Philippines - The death toll from Super Typhoon Yolanda has increased to almost 6,000, based on reports by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) and field units involved in retrieval operations.

The NDRRMC yesterday said the official number of fatalities has climbed to 5,719, with more than a third of them or 2,116 coming from Tacloban City.

However, a total of 2,215 bodies have been recovered by Task Force Cadaver in Tacloban City alone.

If the task force’s update is factored in and if NDRRMC’s figure in Tacloban is set aside to avoid overlaps, the death toll may have risen to 5,818.

Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) Senior Superintendent Pablito Cordeta, commander of Task Force Cadaver, said 25 bodies were retrieved in Tacloban City last Tuesday.

The number of fatalities could also rise further as security officials continue retrieval operations in typhoon-hit areas.

Navy spokesman Lieutenant Commander Gregory Fabic said about 80 bodies have also been spotted in an area near San Juanico Bridge.

Citing police reports, Fabic said the bodies were scattered at the mangrove area within Peerless Village in Barangay Bagacay, Tacloban City and along San Juanico Strait. The decomposing bodies were reportedly found last week.

NDRRMC said Yolanda has left 1,779 persons missing and 26,233 others injured.

A total of 11.26 million persons or 2.38 million families have been affected in Calabarzon, Bicol, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Northern Mindanao, Davao and Caraga regions.

Of the affected residents, more than four million persons or 873,434 families were displaced.

A total of 96,474 persons or 22,274 families are still inside evacuation centers.

The amount of property damaged by the monster storm stayed at P34.37 billion. Of this, infrastructure accounted for P17.33 billion while agriculture damage totaled P17.03 billion

More than 1.21 million houses have been damaged by the typhoon.

Sen. Nancy Binay, on the other hand, urged for a congressional inquiry over the slow response of the government in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda.

Binay filed Senate Resolution No. 405 calling for the investigation in response to the various reports about the slow and disorganized disaster response of the government.

“We have all seen the destruction that Super Typhoon Yolanda has caused our country. Billions worth of property and livelihood were destroyed, many lives were lost and our government’s response was found inadequate,” Binay said.

She said the NDRRMC, which is tasked as the lead agency whenever calamity strikes, did not provide adequate relief to the areas hit by the typhoon.

Binay cited the statements of Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin about the delays in the distribution of relief goods because of the limited number of transport planes to deliver them to survivors.

“We don’t want to point fingers and have a witch hunt of who is blame for the delayed action. We want to know what needs to be done to improve our system of disaster response, devise contingencies in such emergencies and we want to know how we can implement government funding to immediately provide resources when the people need it,” Binay said.

The BFP, meanwhile, honored the five firemen who were among the victims of the super storm.

The BFP officials led Chief Superintendent Carlito Romero attended the necrological service for the five firemen yesterday in front of the damaged fire station in Tacloban City.  – Marvin Sy, Cecille Suerte Felipe