Quezon City allots P500 million for rehabilitation after 'Ondoy'

MANILA, PHilippines - While the government is appealing for donations to fund relief efforts, the Quezon City government has reallocated P500 million of its funds intended for projects for the relief operations of more than 50,000 residents displaced by flash floods and the rehabilitation of infrastructure damaged by tropical storm “Ondoy.”

City Administrator Pacquito Ochoa said yesterday that the P500 million “represents money the city has on hand for such contingencies.”

Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. told The STAR he has cancelled his birthday celebration on Oct. 2 “to attend to the needs of the displaced residents,” many of whom are housed in one of 11 evacuation centers in the city.

Belmonte donated the money intended for his birthday celebration to help flood victims.

He also said the city government will shoulder the burial expenses of all those who died in the flood.

As of yesterday, the local disaster coordinating council has reported more than 50 fatalities and 61 still missing. The most hard-hit is Barangay Silangan, where 29 persons – mostly children – were killed at the height of the typhoon.

Dr. Noel Lansang of the city disaster response center said most of the affected barangays are those located along major waterways, particularly the Tullahan and Lagarian Rivers, which overflowed at the height of the typhoon.

Belmonte also cited the heroic acts of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Ralph Lee, who used a jetski and a rubber boat to rescue dozens of flood victims.

In Barangay Bagong Silangan, Belmonte said two volunteers grabbed people from the raging floodwaters.

The two volunteers were later found among the 29 fatalities lined up in the barangay basketball court after the flood subsided.

“The calamity has brought out heroes and we will never forget their heroic deeds,” Belmonte said.

‘Evergreen’ no more

Meanwhile, Superintendent Constante Agpaoa, commander of the Quezon City Police District Station 6, said a low-lying purok in Barangay Bagong Silangan called Evergreen, where 80 people were carried away by a flash flood Saturday afternoon, should not even be used as a residential area.

Agpaoa said Evergreen, which is located along the bank of a creek leading to the Marikina River, is flooded almost every month.

He said around 1,000 people residing in the area should be relocated, “but it’s not within our authority to force the relocation of these people. We don’t have the police power to do that. It should be the village officials who should effect the transfer of these residents to another area with a higher location.”

Agpoa said 80 Evergreen residents tried to seek refuge in a two-story shanty when the waters suddenly rose in the area. The shanty, however, gave way during a flash flood, carrying the residents away.

He said the number of recovered bodies has reached 31.

Ten more bodies were found in Sitio Payong, which is at the boundary of Barangay Batasan in Quezon City and Barangay Ampid in Marikina City.

Agpaoa said the decomposing bodies remain to be identified and that police are uncertain whether the bodies were from Quezon City or Marikina.    – Perseus Echeminada, Reinir Padua