PINAMALAYAN, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines – For 32-year-old mother of five Luningning Mameng who lost her house in Barangay Cacawan due to Typhoon Nona, President Aquino’s visit here could speed up the delivery of disaster aid.
Like Mameng, Lennybeth Maquimot, 28, and Jho-ann Naling, 24, shared the same wish.
The President arrived here yesterday and vowed to take action to help typhoon victims immediately rebuild their homes.
“Let us remember, those without homes, those without livelihood, we need to fix it now, not next month, not next week. So we need to attend to that right now,” Aquino told local officials.
Mameng, who works as a farmer, told The STAR that they would have to spend Christmas with neighbors whose houses were spared by Nona when it made landfall here on Dec. 15.
“I came here to get some relief goods. Nothing was left of our house,” a teary-eyed Mameng said.
On the other hand, Maquimot showed a photograph of her house with no roof. She will submit it with other documents required by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for assistance and construction of a new dwelling.
Asked what the President’s presence here means to her, Mameng said she only wanted the government to make sure no one would really be left behind in terms of help.
“I hope they will not be selective, does the typhoon choose its victims?” Mameng said in Filipino as she noted that she had yet to receive grocery items.
Female staff members of the DSWD who heard her sentiments could not help but join the conversation and explained to everyone that they would receive aid.
“Please don’t feel bad anymore. We will be addressing all your needs soon,” one of the DSWD personnel assured people here.
Christmas spirit
Residents cheered as the President entered a stadium here for the distribution of relief goods and briefing on the damage wrought about by Nona.
He apologized for being late, saying he just came from Northern Samar and had to stay there for three hours to see for himself the devastation caused by the typhoon there.
The President told officials that there are sufficient funds for relief and rehabilitation operations and he would like to see changes soon.
Gov. Alfonso Umali said destroyed houses in the province reached 30,064 while those damaged numbered 46,478.
In this first class municipality alone, 10,428 houses were destroyed while 4,098 others were damaged.
Umali appealed for assistance as he reported that the damage to agriculture, infrastructure and facilities was estimated to reach billions of pesos.
But he said there was no reason to lose the spirit of Christmas. “Let’s continue celebrating Christmas,” Umali said in Filipino.
The President said validation of all the reported damage must be expedited so that funding could be immediately released.
He revealed that officials of one place hit by a disaster once claimed that some 15 million hectares of coconut farms were devastated, only to find out after an aerial inspection that not even a hectare was lost.
“If I say yes and the proof (of damage) is not shown when the time comes, my Christmas will be happy now but next year I might need to face COA (Commission on Audit). So the government really has a process,” the President explained to make the people understand some assistance might not arrive as fast as he wanted.
“But let me stress, we have the capability to do what must be done. The schools that were shown earlier, I myself would like to commit that we would rebuild them as soon as possible,” Aquino said.
The President said the Department of Public Works and Highways would build schools that would withstand typhoons as powerful as Nona.
He said school buildings must be able to withstand 250-kilometer per hour winds to be considered resilient.
He added hospitals would also be repaired immediately, as he pointed out that savings for this year could be used for relief and rehabilitation of affected areas.
“We need to obligate that before the year ends because if we can do it now, why put it off for tomorrow?” Aquino said.
He added cellular sites were also being fixed now, along with the power supply.
“But right now there is an urgency, it is already Dec. 23,” Aquino said, noting that funds from the national treasury could be obligated until Dec. 31.
The President said they could go to Congress and ask for supplemental budget but it might take long because sessions would not resume until January.
“We just need to finish the validation and then we can map out what the priorities should be,” he said.
Aquino said construction materials, including 100,000 galvanized iron sheets, would be delivered to the residents.
Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said a cash-for-work program would also be implemented, among other livelihood assistance for affected residents.
In Northern Samar, Aquino also pledged the government’s readiness to disburse funds for relief and rehabilitation once local governments were able to submit a detailed rehabilitation and reconstruction plan.
The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) reported on Tuesday that the typhoon affected some 137,549 families, out of Northern Samar’s total of 657,362.
The council also reported 13 deaths, 1,095 injured, nine missing and 42,692 houses destroyed.
Damage in the hundreds of millions was also reported in terms of agriculture and crops, infrastructure and facilities.