Pope Francis prays for victims of 'Vinta' in Mindanao

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis is praying for the people of Mindanao, which was devastated by floods and landslides spawned by Tropical Storm Vinta (international name Tembin) late last week.

Francis noted that the storm “caused numerous victims and much destruction,” as he greeted people in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday, hours before he was set to celebrate the Christmas Eve vigil mass.

The pontiff said he wanted to assure the people of Mindanao of his prayers. He prayed that “merciful God receive the souls of the deceased and comfort all those who are suffering for this calamity.”

“Let’s pray for these people,” he urged those gathered in the square.

While affected areas are still reeling from the aftermath of Vinta and Urduja (Kai-tak), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has given assurance it has adequate resources to provide relief assistance to families affected by the two deadly tropical storms that pummeled the country at the tailend of the year.

The DSWD canceled the holiday vacation particularly of its disaster quick response personnel last Sunday to mobilize for family food pack repacking operations at its National Resource Operations Center (NROC) in Pasay City and to ensure buildup of its replenishment stock of family food packs that may be needed, especially for the Vinta-hit areas in Mindanao.

NROC executive-in-charge, DSWD Assistant Secretary Rodolfo Santos, said the Department of Budget and Management had recently released to the DSWD an additional quick response fund (QRF) of P662.5 million in the aftermath of Urduja and the forecast of then approaching Vinta.

Santos said that before the amount’s release, the DSWD’s QRF stood at around P100 million.

“Our hearts and minds are with the thousands of Filipinos and their families who are affected by Typhoon Vinta and we promise that we are working round-the-clock to help the rest of the national government as well as local government units to ensure that assistance is extended to them,” DSWD officer-in-charge Emmanuel Leyco said at an emergency press briefing he called late Sunday afternoon.

“It is painful for us to receive reports of the increasing number of Filipinos affected by the typhoon, especially so that this is the Christmas season. We appeal to the rest of the Filipino people to please spare a thought for our fellowmen who have lost their loved ones or those who are now in evacuation centers and unable to celebrate with their families,” he added.

Coast Guard to deliver relief

Meanwhile, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) is set to dispatch by the middle of this week two of its ships to deliver relief goods to those who had been badly hit by Vinta in Northern Mindanao and in Davao.

PCG spokesman Captain Armand Balilo said PCG officer-in-charge Commodore Joel Garcia has ordered their BRP Pampanga to prepare for their trip back to Northern Mindanao.

The BRP Pampanga has just returned to Manila after delivering relief goods to Marawi City and was stranded in Mindanao for a few days because of inclement weather caused by Vinta that was traversing Mindanao at the time.

“The personnel of BRP Pampanga will just rest on Christmas Day and then we would start loading the relief goods on their ship. They would be sent back to Northern Mindanao and maybe even Davao, depending on the volume of relief goods that we would be transporting. If there are a lot of relief goods, we could also utilize our multi-role response vessels such as the BRP Corregidor to ferry the goods to Mindanao,” Balilo said.

Balilo said they understand the urgency of the situation to provide assistance to those affected by the storm.

Even if it was Christmas, he has been coordinating with the DSWD and the PCG Auxiliary and looking for others who were willing to donate relief goods.

The PCG is also appealing to the public to donate food including bottled water, clothing and hygiene items for their fellow Filipinos in Mindanao who lost their homes and loved ones in the calamity.

Woman rescued in Central Visayas

A woman was rescued yesterday by a passing international cargo ship after surviving four days drifting atop her house’s debris in the seas of Antique in the Visayas – some 900 kilometers north from where she was swept away by flashfloods in Sibuco town, Zamboanga del Norte.

Diana Taling, 25, was spotted hanging onto bamboo debris and was rescued at about 3 a.m. yesterday.

The cargo vessel immediately coordinated with and turned over Taling to the PCG which brought her to a hospital in Antique for treatment for dehydration and sunburn.

Allan Tagala, a member of the Kabalikat Sibicom radio club in Antique, contacted radio station RMN dxRZ in Zamboanga City and informed the staff about the rescue of Taling after learning that the victim was from Sibuco.

Taling, who was still in shock, told the program of station manager Joel Sanson that she was with some family members inside their house in Barangay Anungan when the rampaging floodwaters swept away their house Friday night.

NDRRMC: 164 dead, 171 missing

Vinta exited the Philippine area of responsibility on Sunday, leaving at least 335 persons dead and missing.

Latest information released by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) recorded 164 deaths and 171 missing.

Of the casualties, 69 were from Region X, 33 from Region IX and 21 from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

“We stress that these numbers are for verification, validation and confirmation with the Department of the Interior and Local Government,” NDRRMC spokesperson Romina Marasigan said.

She explained that reports of dead and missing persons kept coming in even on Christmas Eve, but some may be double entries or unverified reports, considering that there are still no names nor information on the cause of death.

The NDRRMC said Vinta affected 115,568 families or 541,005 persons from a total of 998 barangays in Regions VII, IX, X, XI, XII, ARMM, Caraga and Mimaropa.

As of yesterday, some 20,870 families or 97,583 persons remain housed in 261 evacuation centers.

Search for missing continues

The search for the missing swept away by flashfloods continued days after Vinta battered Central and Western Mindanao, a senior security official said.

The Police Regional Office 9 has accounted for at least 69 of the total number of those who perished in the Zamboanga peninsula, Chief Supt. Billy Beltran said.

The military, on the other hand, reported more than 20 dead in Central Mindanao, particularly in Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte.

Beltran said police and the local disaster units and the PCG, Navy and Army forces were on relentless search and retrieval for about 88 missing victims in the Zamboanga peninsula.

Sibuco Mayor Norbideiri Edding said they have shifted from rescue to search and retrieval operations for those still missing.

Western Mindanao Command chief Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr. said troops under Joint Task Force Zampelan were also looking for 21 missing people in the Lanao area.

“Soldiers and rescue personnel from both government and private organizations continued to conduct search, rescue and retrieval operations in areas severely affected by the storm,” Galvez said, adding they have been utilizing the Philippine Air Force aircraft to effectively reach a wide area for the massive search.

PAGASA dispels super typhoon rumors

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) dispelled rumors circulating on social media that a super typhoon will hit the country next month.

PAGASA’s weather division chief Esperanza Cayanan said that while zero or one cyclone normally enters the Philippine area of responsibility in January, predicting its intensity more than a week in advance “has a very high uncertainty,” based on historical records. – AP, Rainier Allan Ronda, Evelyn Macairan, Roel Pareño, Michael Punongbayan, Ben Serrano, Helen Flores