Hospitals damaged by Paeng now under repair

MANILA, Philippines — The fury unleashed by Severe Tropical Storm Paeng last week has damaged several health facilities, which are now undergoing repairs, the Department of Health (DOH) revealed yesterday.

Speaking at a press briefing, DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said Paeng damaged 15 facilities located in Regions 3 (Central Luzon), 4A (Calabarzon), 6 (Western Visayas), 12 (Soccsksargen) and the Cordillera Administrative Region.

“These facilities consisted of seven hospitals, six barangay stations and two rural health units,” said Vergeire as she clarified that despite the structural damage they sustained, their operations have been continuous.

At the same time, she stressed that health workers deployed in every region of the country are the ones mobilized to attend to those seeking shelter at evacuation centers every time there is a calamity.

At present, evacuation centers are gradually decamping, she noted. “When we visited Region 3, people have already left the evacuation centers. In Maguindanao, those in the evacuation centers are set to decamp this weekend,” said Vergeire.

A recent report of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said over two million Filipinos were adversely affected by Paeng’s onslaught.

A total of 160 cities and municipalities have, so far, been placed under a state of calamity, it said.

Yesterday, Sen. Sonny Angara suggested that empty COVID-19 quarantine and isolation facilities can be converted into evacuation centers for families affected by disasters.

Dubbed as “We Heal as One Centers, Ligtas COVID and Mega Ligtas COVID Centers,” these quarantine and isolation facilities were either newly constructed or existing structures repurposed to cater to individuals who contracted the virus at the height of the pandemic.

Angara, who chairs the Senate committee on finance, said the need to maintain these facilities must be assessed now that the spread of COVID-19 is under control.

“We want to see the utilization rate of these facilities and I suspect that many of them are no longer being utilized now. We can put them to good use by converting them as evacuation centers for families affected by the typhoons that hit our country several times in a year,” he said.

Angara’s suggestion came on the heels of his colleagues’ calls for increased funding for disaster mitigation and prevention projects in the proposed P5.268-trillion national budget for 2023 that is set to be sponsored by his committee on Tuesday.

He said the conversion of isolation centers will also help in freeing up public schools that are usually used as evacuation centers. – Paolo Romero