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Aid operations went into full swing two days after “Ondoy” devastated Metro Manila and other parts of the northern Philippines as various organizations started distributing relief goods to calamity victims.
By RAYMUND VILLANUEVA
Bulatlat.com
http://www.bulatlat.com/main/2009/09/29/various-groups-launch-%E2%80%98ondoy%E2%80%99-relief-operations/
MANILA — Aid operations went into full swing two days after “Ondoy” devastated Metro Manila and other parts of the northern Philippines as various organizations started distributing relief goods to calamity victims.
Gabriela Women’s Party, the National Council of Churches of the Philippines, and ABS-CBN Foundation-Gawad Kapamilya distributed one thousand bags of rice, canned food, drinking water and other items to victims of Barangay Bagong Silangan in Quezon City Monday afternoon.
Led by GWP representative Luzviminda Ilagan and ABS-CBN contract stars Angel Locsin and Candy Pangilinan, the relief mission focused on families who lost members during last Saturday’s deluge. About 20 Bagong Silangan residents died, mostly children.
Samahan ng Maralitang Kababaihang Nagkakaisa (Samakana), a Gabriela member organization, coordinated the relief efforts, distributing numbered stubs to affected residents to facilitate the mission.
Meanwhile, the Citizens’ Disaster Response Center (CDRC) started receiving donations in their Quezon City headquarters Monday morning. Residents from the upscale Times Street neighbourhood as well as Center for Volunteerism in the Philippines (CERV-Philippines) volunteered to repack relief items into plastic bags for distribution on Tuesday.
CDRC Advocacy and Campaign officer Dakila Aquino said that they have already identified “priority areas” where they would be sending the relief goods that they have collected.
“As much as possible, we wanted to reach out to everyone but we have limited resources. We are in need of donations such as rice, dried fish, monggo beans, medicines, clothes and blankets,” Aquino said.
Kabataan Partylist also launched its relief drive, identifying four relief centers: its headquarters at #118-B Sct. Rallos in Quezon City, University of Student Council Office, Vinzons Hall, UP Diliman, College of Social Work and Community Development Sudent Council, UP Diliman and College of Arts and Sciences Student Council Office, UP Manila.
Even consumer advocacy group TXTPower has solicited donations for victims of Ondoy. As of 3:25 pm of Sept. 28, TXTPower received almost P600,000 monetary donations. All donations will be turned over to the Philippine National Red Cross.
Health advocacy groups formed the Samahang Oplan Sagip as a response to the disaster. It has been accepting donations in cash and in kind for the victims of the typhoon. Donations may be sent to the Council for Health and Development at #35 Examiner St. West Triangle, Quezon City with tel. nos. 929-81-09. Monetary donations may be deposited to the following accounts: Philippine National Bank Savings Account # 219-8303219 and Bank of Philippine Islands US $ account # 314 00 5391 with the swift code BPIPHMM. The group issues receipts when needed.
Meanwhile, Bayan Muna has canceled its anniversary celebration this Wednesday to give way to relief operations in Marikina on Sep. 30 and Montalban, Rizal on Oct. 1. They accept donations at their office located 45 K-7th St., Brgy. Kamias, Quezon City.
According to various data gathered by the CDRC, the number of families affected by Ondoy increased to 89,116 families or 448,454 persons.
The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) reported that 100 people died in the National Capital Region, CAR, and Region IV-A.
In Metro Manila, over 5,000 people from 45 barangays were evacuated after incessant rains caused heavy flooding in Manila, Marikina, Malabon, Muntinlupa, Makati, Pasay, Pasig, Valenzuela, San Juan and Quezon City. A total of 50 road sections were also left impassable to vehicles due to raging flood waters, leaving several commuters stranded.
The total cost of damage has already reached P108.9 million. The damage to infrastructure has reached P108.7 million; and to agriculture P212,537.
In Pasig, one of the hardest hit cities, subdivisions on Barangay Sta Lucia are still submerged in chest-deep waters. On Saturday night, two-storey houses were submerged, trapping thousands, including patients in a hospital.
“The waters were dark brown and thick like soup. It was unlike anything we have seen in these parts at all,” Sta. Lucia High School teacher Karen Villanueva said. She and her students escaped being trapped inside their inundated school by scaling walls and crossing roofs to reach a three-storey house near the school. Floodwaters only started to subside on Monday morning.
Victims complained of lost cellular phone signals when these were most needed. “Communication was very important for us during those times of distress. We were failed by the networks, particularly Globe,” one of the victims said.
They also assailed military and police choppers who did not give food and water to hungry and dehydrated victims who spent two chilly nights on house roofs. “We saw lots of helicopters hovering above our heads but gave no relief. Only a small private chopper gave us a couple of food bags,” one of them said.
Victims trapped inside their submerged houses only started coming out Monday morning. They walked from Sta Lucia to C5 Road to escape while residents who could not come home since Saturday trudged the other way.
After being trapped in his Makati office for two days, Arnold Dizon finally reached home Monday morning to find his elderly and ailing parents trapped inside their house for two days without electricity and were running low on food and drinking water.
Cries of relief were heard all over the inundated Marietta-Romeo Village as family members were reunited while some residents silently started cleaning their destroyed houses.
Roads leading to the place were blocked by vehicles of all sizes washed away by Ondoy’s raging waters.
In nine hours, “Ondoy” reportedly dumped rainwater equal to an entire month during a rainy season. While Hurricane Katrina poured 380 cm of water, Ondoy dumped 410 cm of rains causing the worst flooding in the Philippine capital in the last 40 years.
With climate change at hand, the country would be most likely to experience more Ondoy, Aquino underscored the need to push for the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Bill, a law that would empower the local government unit in addressing such calamity. (with reports from Janess Ann Ellao and Ronalyn Olea)
Because it wasn’t a story about multi-million peso properties in high-end areas in the United States, this story was buried in just about the most unimportant page of yesterday’s Inquirer:
1 dead in fight over stuffed toy
A fight over an old discarded stuffed toy left a scavenger dead and another wounded yesterday afternoon. PO2 Norlan Margallo of the Quezon City Police District’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit identified the two as Jimson Navarro and Jun Flores, both residents of Payatas, Quezon City. Margallo said Flores stabbed Navarro dead after an argument over the ownership of a stuffed bear which they found in the dump. Witnesses said the two men grabbed the toy at the same time, both refusing to let go, as they argued over who got to keep it. During the struggle, Flores punched Navarro in the face and then pulled out a knife which he used to stab the victim repeatedly. Police said Navarro died on the spot while Flores fled brom the dump, bringing with him the stuffed toy. –Nancy Carvajal.
If you have been to a dump site and have seen how this people live you would not really be surprised. To the scavengers a scrap, a piece of plastic or rusted metal is a step closer to a next meal, whenever that comes. The stuffed bear they fought over must be for a child cruelly denied a toy by their poverty. Obviously, an old and discarded toy is enough reason to kill another person who also claims it.
I am not justifying the killing. What I am condemning is the grinding poverty that pushed these scavengers to such actions even when the president’s children acquire expensive houses without even declaring them, as required by law.
