CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – The bodies of five victims of raging flash floods that hit Camiling, Tarlac at about 7:45 p.m. Saturday have been recovered, even as the unexpected flood apparently triggered by the release of waters from the San Roque Dam rendered several roads impassable in the province.
PO1 Roberto de Guzman of the Camiling police identified the fatalities as King Ramil Candelario, 6, his brother Kurd Jack Candelario, 4, their uncle Benjie Benedicto, 36, who were swept off by strong currents while they were fleeing to higher grounds in Barangay Budon; Protacio Gelacio, 38, who drowned in Barangay Tilbang and Celso Molina, 25, also a drowning victim in Barangay Malacampao.
“The floodwaters suddenly came and rose fast from the Camiling river at about 7: 45 p.m. last Saturday. It was the first time we experienced that kind of flooding in Camiling,” De Guzman said in a phone interview.
He said that some 40 passengers of Ermina buslines were also rescued by the military along the highway in Camiling after the sudden flooding rose to inundate their vehicle even up to the level of passenger seats.
The San Roque dam in Pangasinan north of Camiling started to release huge volumes of water at the height of typhoon Pedring last Tuesday. Folk in Camiling believe that a sudden release of dam’s water last Saturday night might have triggered the flood surge in their town.
Last Saturday’s unexpected flooding also damaged infrastructure in Tarlac. Armed Forces Nothern Luzon Command spokesperson Capt. Jovily Cabading said the La Paz-Zaragoza road remained impassable to all types of vehicles, while the La Paz-Victoria road, the Paniqui-Ramos road, and the Anao-Ramos road were not passable to light vehicles as of yesterday. Other major roads and bridges in Tarlac were reported passable.
Cabading said a total of 3, 609 families or 12,714 persons from the towns of Camiling, Moncada, Paniqui, La Paz, and Concepcion were evacuated to safer grounds, but they started to go back home as the floods ebbed yesterday.
Meanwhile, farmers belonging to the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luson (AMGL) sought “concrete support” from the Aquino government amid reports that typhoons Pedring and Quiel caused agriculture damage worth about P 7.04 billion.
“Typhoon Pedring heavily damaged farmers’ houses and crops that would definitely put them into deep poverty and indebtedness,” said Joseph Canlas, AMGL chairperson.
“These billions of pesos of losses in agriculture are the potential income of farmers but now they are lost and they would not be able to pay their loans. By this problem alone, they would be compelled to pawn or sell their lands just to pay up these loans,” Canlas said.
AMGL noted reports that government relief efforts that amounted to P25 million in Central Luzon was only about 0.35 percent of the total cost of damages caused by typhoon Pedring.
“The relief cost includes the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s assistance amounting to about P10 million with P2.5 million coming from the pork barrel of district congressmen. On the average it would only give P13. 62 assistance for each affected person or P64.67 per family,” Canlas said.
The AMGL asked the government for a moratorium on the payment of the farmers’ loans “as they are not incapable of paying up this season.”
The group also asked the Department of Agriculture to “subsidize 50 to 100 percent of the value of the crops lost to farmers and the immediate assistance of P50,000 for those whose houses totally and partially destroyed.”
