SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union, Philippines – Relief goods for victims of Typhoon Ineng in the Ilocos Region arrived yesterday at Poro Point aboard BRP Ivatan and BRP Batak– two newly acquired ships of the Philippine Navy.
The relief goods, including 13,602 food packs from the Department of Social Welfare and Development central office in Manila, will be loaded on military trucks to be delivered in Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur and Abra.
Capt. Albert Mogol, Naval Task Force 11 commander, will lead officers and personnel of the task force in distributing the goods.
Ineng affected at least 70,000 people in Ilocos Norte and some 1,000 families in Ilocos Sur.
Sources said bad weather delayed the transport of the relief goods.
The two Navy landing vessels, which were acquired from the Australian government, was turned over to the Philippine government on July 23.
P1-B damage
Damage to crops and infrastructure in Ilocos Norte alone has reached P1 billion, according to the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
Damage to agriculture was placed at P84 million and P990 million to infrastructure.Some 85 hectares of rice and corn fields were destroyed.
The rice sector sustained P61.2 million damage, high value crops (P4.7 million), corn (P2.7 million) and fisheries (P3.9 million).
Cagayan breakwater
The Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) has denied reports that the P5.1-billion breakwater at Port Irene in Sta. Ana, Cagayan was destroyed by the storm surges at the height of Ineng.
“We have done a post-weather inspection and noticed that a small portion of the breakwater had been misaligned…it suffered minor damage,” CEZA public information officer Joyce Jayme-Calimag said. “In due time the breakwater will be back in shape and continue to protect the port and communities in the area.”
Calimag assured the public that the breakwater is covered by a 15-year warranty at no cost to CEZA. She said the contractor is just waiting for the weather to improve so they can start the repair works.
“If not for the breakwater, communities near Port Irene could have been washed out by the storm surges wrought by Typhoon Ineng,” she said.
The 1,000 meter-long breakwater, which was completed last February, had protected the coastal barangay of Casambalangan in Santa Ana town.
Calimag said strong winds spawned by Ineng caused storm surges around 10 to 15 meters high. – Jun Elias, Victor Martin, Raymund Catindig, Artemio Dumlao