CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – As weather improved, flooding in Nueva Ecija and Bulacan started to ebb yesterday, but relief and rescue efforts continued as floodwaters from the two pro-vinces flowed to some already inundated parts of this province.
This, even as Pampanga Gov. Lilia Pineda proposed the establishment of permanent evacuation centers in government owned lands to pave the way for the eventual resettlement of folk perennially affected by serious flooding in her province.
The Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) said members of the Philippine Dragon Boat Team volunteered to carry out relief and rescue missions in parts of Bulacan and Pampanga where families remained on dikes or roofs amid heavy flooding dumped by typhoon Pedring.
Nolcom commander Maj. Gen. Jessie Dellosa said that team was composed of 10 military members, three civilians and three Coast Guard personnel who arrived with eight boats.
“We appreciate and very much welcome this kind of volunteerism. We are also encouraging those who have equipment such rubber boats, jet skis, even banca or bangkang de motor, big cargo or dump trucks, loaders to please be involved. Our rescue teams can do more with their help,” Dellosa said.
Meanwhile, PO2 Dave Canlas of the police of San Simon town said barangay councilor Wesley Mayuyu remained missing after he was swept by strong flood currents in Barangay San Juan at about 5 p.m. Saturday after his boat loaded with relief goods overturned. His two companions were rescued.
Pineda said that despite improved weather, floodwaters were noted to have swelled in Masantol and Macabebe yesterday, and she attributed this to the flow of flooding from Nueva Ecija and Bulacan.
The governor proposed to the national government the construction of permanent evacuation centers for folk perennially dislocated by flooding in Central Luzon.
“It’s getting worse each year and we can’t go on like this. We must treat this problem in the way the government did during the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo,” she said.
Pineda has asked the National Housing Authority to allocate lands for such permanent evacuation centers.
She noted that a 50-hectare resettlement site for Mt. Pinatubo victims in Magalang town has remained idle and that she would ask the NHA to transform this into a permanent evacuation site for flooding victims.
“I know people would not leave their homes, but they would be safer in permanent evacuation centers.
Eventually, once they get used to the evacuation centers, they might be more open to moving into it permanently and abandon their endangered areas,” she added.
Also in San Simon Sunday morning, Ang Galing Pinoy party list Rep. Mikey Arroyo, in behalf of his mother former president and 2nd district Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, distributed relief goods to some 1,000 families in Barangay Sto. Nino in the town.
He declined to comment on whether his mother had any message to her flooded “cabalens”, as this would be the first time that Mrs. Arroyo would not be able to distribute relief goods during a calamity in her province since she became president.
Pineda, the former president’s close ally, said Mrs. Arroyo has not yet visited Pampanga since her doctors advised her to refrain from work and allow full healing from her third surgery on her damaged cervical spine.
“She still has to follow the advice of her doctors,” Pineda said in a telephone interview.
Mrs. Arroyo underwent her third surgery in the last week of August at the St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City and was discharged last Sept. 2 when her attending physician Dr. Juliet Cervantes gave her the go signal “to rest and continue recovering at home.”
The former president was reported to be recovering in her home in La Vista, Quezon City.
The Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said a total of P1,797,400 worth of relief assistance has so far been provided to the typhoon victims. Of this total, P900,521 was from the municipal governments and P194,300 from the barangay councils of the affected areas.
Regional Director Adelina Apostol of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said her office has distributed at least P702,579.60 worth of relief goods for victims of typhoon Pedring.
Apostol said flooding triggered by Pedring affected 216,518 families or 1,021,939 persons in 716 barangays in 78 municipalities in Central Luzon.
About 213 evacuation centers were set up to accommodate 20,297 families or 91,223 persons, she said.
Latest count indicated that 666 houses were totally destroyed and 1,446 others were partially damaged.
