Palace:Typhoon preparations not lacking

MANILA, Philippines - Government preparations for the entry of Typhoon Ineng (Goni) in the country was not lacking even as casualties and shortage in supply of relief goods were reported in some affected areas, officials said yesterday.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said President Aquino had tasked frontline agencies to make sure that everything was prepositioned – from relief goods to the Department of Public Works and Highways’ heavy equipment – in localities to be affected by the typhoon.

Valte said Aquino was made aware of the increased number of areas with public storm warning signal and called concerned authorities to be ready to keep the people safe.

She said the Department of Health was one of the agencies required to preposition assets, including basic medicine, in times of calamity.

Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon Soliman said that some 1,700 food packs had been prepositioned in Gonzaga town in Cagayan and distributed to Municipal Social Welfare and Development Offices.

Soliman said the DSWD continues to preposition relief supplies in towns and provinces affected by the typhoon.

She said the DSWD has P47.47-million standby funds available for the purchase of emergency relief supplies, if needed.

Aside from the prepositioned goods at the local level, DSWD also has 366,781 family food packs in all its field offices nationwide and at the National Resource Operations Center in Pasay City ready to augment local government resources.

She said relief goods were prepositioned at the provincial and municipal levels but if these have been exhausted, the local government units can request for additional resources, which becomes the basis for the provision of the assistance.

Soliman said affected families were sheltered in different evacuation centers in Simbaluca, Simpatuyo, Villa and Centro East in Sta. Teresita also in

Cagayan while in Gonzaga, there were additional six families who went to the village of Delano where residents had been evacuated on Friday.

She said 400 food packs each for Gonzaga and Sta. Teresita towns had been distributed and they would be sending more from Tuguegarao to these areas.

“We also continue to coordinate with the Cordillera Administrative Region because they have some evacuation centers in the city,” Soliman said.

She added the evacuees were beginning to go back to their homes as the situation was normalizing.

Soliman said electricity in Baguio City was being restored after it lost 50 percent of its supply.

Soliman stressed it was quite surprising to hear that relief goods in Gonzaga were not enough but nonetheless, they brought in additional supplies.

She said more than P470 million worth of food packs had been prepositioned in the various provinces in CAR, Region 1 and 2 and not just in regional offices.

Soliman added there were no reports of people getting sick in evacuation areas so far.