Sampal sa mukha ni Gloria Arroyo ang ginawa ni Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalila ng Bahrain na sa ABS-CBN Foundation binigay ang kanilang P25 milyon na donasyon para sa biktima ng bagyong Ondoy.
Nagmukhang tanga ang pamahalaan ni Arroyo sa turnover ng donasyon noong Biyernes. Biruin nyo sinamahan ni Amable Aguiluz V, Aguiluz, ang special envoy ni Arroyo sa Gulf Cooperation Council, ang sugo ng Bahrain Prime Minister na si Ambassador Yousif Adel Sater sa pagturn-over ng donasyun kay Gina Lopez, managing director ng ABS-CBN Foundation.
Kung matino ang pamahalaan ni Arroyo, dapat sa Malacañang ang turn-over ng donasyun.
by Regina Bengco, Gerard Naval and JP Lopez Malaya
Dagupan City — President Arroyo on Monday created a Special National Public-Private Sector Reconstruction Commission that will study the causes, costs and actions to be undertaken following the devastation by storm “Ondoy” and typhoon “Pepeng”.
Arroyo made the announcement at the Cabinet meeting here where the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) was also convened.
She said the Commission will undertake the rehabilitation plan, raise funds for reconstruction and oversee its implementation, serve as a clearing house for international assistance, and request the United Nations and the World Bank to coordinate an international pledging session.
Nagpaplano ang mga tao at mga kumpanya na nasalanta ng bagyong “Ondoy” at “Pepeng” nitong mga nakaraang linggo na magsampa ng kaso sa mga opisyal ng pamahalaan at mga operator ng dam sa kanilang kapabayaan na nagdulot ng malaking hirap sa libo-libong mga mamamayan.
Sobra kasi ang dami ng tubig na ipinalabas ng Pantabangan at San Roque dam noong isang araw na siyang dahilan ng matinding baha sa Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija at karatig lalawigan.
Napakinggan ko ang interview ni Anthony Taberna kay Sen. Chiz Escudero sa DZMM. Taga Nueva Ecija si Anthony at si Chiz naman ay nasa Pangasinan noong linggo kasama si Grace Poe at tumulong sila sa mga nasalanta ng bagyong “Pepeng”. (Si Fernando Poe Jr ay taga-Pangasinan).
Kahindik-hindik ang iniwan ng bagyong “Pepeng” lalo na sa La Trinidad, Benguet kung saan mga 150 na tao ang natabunan ng lupa sa landslide na nangyari dahil sa ilang araw na ulan na dala ng bagyong si “Pepeng.”
Sa Pangasinan naman hanggang Nueva Ecija, nagiging malaking rumaragasang ilog ang mga bayan. Maliban sa pagkasira ng mga bahay, sira na rin ang mga kabuhayan katulad ng pala-isdaan at palayan.
Sinabi sa isang report na yung isang pamilya, binalikan nila ang nabahang palayan na dapat sana ay aanihin na sana sa susunod na linggo. Nag-ani na rin sila kahit baha. Pagkatapos pinatuyo nila ang palay sa kawali at yun ang kanilang sinaing. Nakakabagbag damdamin.
By Delmar Cariño, Vincent Cabreza, Frank Cimatu,
Inquirer Northern Luzon
Philippine Daily Inquirer
LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — Gazing at a mountainside that had collapsed, La Trinidad Mayor Artemio Galwan was moved to tears on seeing the ruins of houses swamped by mud.
Photo from Philippine StarThen he asked what was inside the sack being carried by a trolley. He was told it contained the body of a baby. It was killed in the landslide that smashed into the community of Little Kibungan.
The mayor’s eyes moistened, he bowed his head and uttered a prayer. On a normal day, the trolley would have been carrying vegetables from highland farms.
Galwan told the Philippine Daily Inquirer yesterday more than 20 houses were swept away by the mudslides that occurred on Thursday night, and he feared around 150 people might have been buried in the avalanche that hit his town.
“Kakaasi da piman [They are pitiful],” Galwan, who was supervising rescue operations, said as the first batch of bodies were brought in from the other side of the mountain. From the InquirerEntire village gone
“I really feel sad. It’s an entire village that was washed out,” he said.
Rescuers yesterday struggled through mud and pounding rain to clear mountain roads and retrieve scores of people dead from the landslides that buried villages and cut off towns in the rain-soaked Northern Luzon.
Reports from the regional Office of Civil Defense and the Cordillera police placed the death toll at 122. Estimates of the number of missing ran as high as 70.
The latest calamity brought the death toll to more than 450 from the Philippines’ worst flooding in 40 years after back-to-back storms started pounding Luzon, including Metro Manila, on September 26.
Rescuers buried
The Associated Press, quoting provincial officials, said more than 160 people were killed in the landslides in Benguet and Mountain Province.
