Capitol sends equipment, cash

Thursday, December 29, 2011

ILIGAN City—An engineering task force from the Cebu Provincial Government, using heavy equipment brought here and some provided by contractors, are among the units helping clear the debris in Bayug, one of the worst hit when Sendong flooded 11 barangays.

Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia and six mayors went to Cagayan De Oro and Iligan City last Tuesday, handing over P12.22 million in cash assistance to the two cities, and to check Capitol’s heavy equipment and personnel who were in their green uniforms.

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The mayors who came were Dumanjug Mayor and League of Municipalities president Nelson Garcia, Medellin Mayor Ricky Ramirez, Sogod Mayor Liza Marie Durano, Boljoon Mayor Teresita Celis, Tabuelan Mayor Rex Gerona and San Francisco Vice Mayor Al Arquillano.

Gratitude

Both Cagayan City Mayor Donkoy Emano and Iligan City Mayor Lawrence Cruz Cruz said they are grateful for the Cebu Province’s help.

Capitol extended P5 million to each city and the Cebu mayors handed P1.11 million to each city.

In a brief meeting with Garcia and Cebu mayors at Cruz’s office, the city mayor requested Cebu Provincial Engineer Eulogio Pelayre, to keep these equipment posted in the hard-hit barangays.

Pelayre said the equipment crews are now focusing their effort in Orchid Village, Hinaplanon, Bonbonon, Bigkilaam and in Bayog Island.

Bayog Island, he said, is the worst-hit because it is an island within a river, and debris of houses and unaccounted bodies are heaped there.

He said four big contractors of the Province who have existing projects in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan have lent their heavy equipment. They are WTG, Sokor Construction, Doros Construction and O.R. Sarmiento.

Areas

Pelayre said the contractors have also sent their own drivers to man the equipment and other personnel.

In the case of Capitol, Pelayre’s staff was set on rotation basis. The first batch was able to spend Christmas in Iligan City. They will go home before New Year so they can be with their families and another team will be sent there within the week.

He said they are prioritizing their work on clearing roads so that vehicles with relief goods can pass by easily.

Drivers and two engineers camped out at the Iligan Park. The Province spent for their food.

The equipment will be sent to other affected barangays in Cagayan de Oro city after their work here.

One alternative concrete bridge connecting the wide river in Iligan was cut off and some of its pillars were washed away during the flood.

Missing

People believe bodies can still be found under earth and logs hauled into this riverside community when water rushed to Bayug from two fronts—the Mandulog River and Capay.

“Wala pa namo makit-an akong asawa og anak babaye (We are still searching for my wife and daughter),” said Jun Gungob, originally from Larena in Siquijor, but who migrated to Bayug, Iligan City two years before. “Pero mura’g wala na ni” (I’m not keeping my hopes up).

Tuesday, Gungob and those of what is left from a community of close to 1,000 in over 300 households built small altars to commemorate loved ones still missing. They used wood and planks left by the floodwaters and offered flowers and portions of bread distributed earlier by relief workers as offering.

As night fell, they lit candles and prayed.

Using a back hoe, the engineering task force from the Cebu Provincial Government hoisted cars reduced into crumpled sheets of metal and glass by the onslaught of logs and water from Capay to Bayug.

A tanker distributed potable water to queuing residents.

The Iligan City Government prevented residents from staying in the area, but journalists who surveyed the place found an indication of people starting to build shacks using materials left when waters subsided, even the same timber that destroyed their homes.

A 10-hectare relocation site has been identified in Tuminubo, a mountain barangay. The property is titled to the National Steel Corp., now Global Steel, but is part of a 200-hectare area the City Government wants to attach owing to unpaid local taxes.

The property is earmarked for sale, but instead of getting part of the proceeds, Mayor Cruz wants to take the land instead.

A release from the Philippine Information Agency said a cash-for-work scheme will be implemented for those who intend to build their own homes. Under the program, they get the equivalent of 75 percent of minimum wage plus the materials they would need.

Casualties

Last Tuesday, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported that the number of casualties here has reached 1,249. There is no count of the missing, among them June’s wife and daughter, because of “conflicting data at the local level.”

Damage was computed at P1.143 billion.

In Cagayan de Oro, a team of psychologists from the University of San Carlos in Cebu City are expected to arrive this morning to assist social workers in conducting stress debriefing.

Meanwhile, a four-page document indicatedthat Mayor Vicente Emano had prior knowledge of the risks the communities wiped out by Sendong faced the next time there would be a flood.

Warning

The first page is a Jan. 19, 2009 memorandum a six-member committee sent to the Department of Evironment and Natural Resources (DENR) executive director for Northern Mindanao, urging that further building of homes in Cala-cala, Biasong, Roa Quarry, Balulang, Tibasak and Consolacion be “strictly prohibited.”

The memorandum was signed by heads of the different DENR units—the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, the Environment Management Bureau, Land Management Section, the Forest Management Services, Ecosystem Research and Development Services and the Protected Areas Wildlife and Coastal Zones Services.

The second document shows that, on the same day, DENR Executive Director Ernesto Adobo Jr., immediately sent the City Government a letter highlighting the committee’s recommendation.

But while the two documents were dated 2009, prior to the start of Mayor Vicente Emano’s assumption to office, Emano was the vice mayor then.

Media

Cebu reporters gave more than P50,000 cash assistance to media members who were hit by the flood.

Capitol Association of Reporters in Tri-Media (Cart) turned over P14,080 in cash assistance each to Iligan.

The Cebu Federation of Beat Journalists (CFBJ) also turned over another P13,000 to the National Union of Journalist officer Jigger Jerusalem, intended for media members who were affected by the flood.

Last December 19, Capitol sent relief goods and water to the two cities, aboard two dump trucks. The two dump trucks were left in Iligan since then and more equipment started arriving after Christmas.