‘Pablo’ victims need more assistance – UN

MANILA, Philippines - The United Nations (UN) launched an appeal yesterday for more international aid to help nearly a million Filipinos as they recover from super typhoon “Pablo,” last year’s deadliest in the world.

The UN said it needed another $48.6 million to give “immediate life-saving assistance” to survivors of Pablo, which killed 1,060 people and left more than 800 others missing in Mindanao last December.

“The magnitude of this disaster demands more, and the funding and resources we have at present are not commensurate with the needs that we must meet,” UN resident and humanitarian coordinator Luiza Carvalho said in a statement.

The UN appealed for $65 million shortly after Pablo struck, but the total amount needed has risen to $76 million, according to Carvalho. She said the UN has so far raised just $27.36 million.

Meanwhile, Pablo left P491.4 million in damage to healthcare infrastructure and equipment in three provinces in Mindanao, but rehabilitation efforts have to be put on hold as it’s still uncertain if the affected residents could go back to their communities, Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Dr. Ted Herbosa said in Sorsogon City yesterday.

Of the amount, Herbosa said Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley incurred damage estimated at P238.8 million and P238 million, respectively.

In Davao Oriental, the damage was placed at P201.3 million. “Two of the five provincial hospitals were damaged. Four of 11 rural health units (RHUs) and 54 of 112 barangay health stations (BHSs) were destroyed,” he said.

Pablo wreaked havoc on all four provincial hospitals in Compostela Valley, along with six of 11 RHUs and 92 of 257 BHSs.

In Davao del Norte, the typhoon partially damaged a provincial hospital, one of eight RHUs, and five of 113 BHSs.

Herbosa said the DOH is part of a task force headed by Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras that is drawing up the blueprint for the rehabilitation of Pablo-affected areas.

“There are plans and we are divided into clusters. The DOH is included in the social cluster to provide social services, in the infrastructure (cluster) to rebuild damaged healthcare facilities, and the resettlement cluster because when you resettle the people, you have to provide health services,” he said.

But Herbosa said efforts to reconstruct the destroyed health facilities are put on hold due to uncertainty if the residents could still return to their communities. – Pia Lee-Brago, Sheila Crisostomo