Palawan's Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (PDRRMO) has released a report saying that due to the enormity of devastation inflicted in the province by Super Typhoon Yolanda (international codename: Haiyan), the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) has placed the following 14 Palawan towns under the State of Calamity:
- Agutaya
- Araceli
- Busuanga
- Cagayancillo
- Coron
- Culion
- Cuyo Dumaran
- El Nido
- Linapacan
- Magsaysay
- Roxas
- San Vicente
- Taytay
In a resolution that was unanimously passed by members of the SP, Board Member Leoncio Ola, who penned it, disclosed that around 20,308 families in these towns were affected by Yolanda, according to data provided by the PDRRMO.
Ola said the declaration aims to provide Palawan Governor Jose Alvarez with the authority to use the province’s calamity fund to reach out to the residents, who are in dire need of assistance.
The State of Calamity is defined as “a condition involving mass casualty and/or major damages to property, disruption of means of livelihoods, roads and normal way of life of people in the affected areas as a result of the occurrence of natural or human-induced hazard” as stated under Section 3 of RA 10121, known as the “Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010.”
Areas under the declaration could utilize five percent (5%) of their annual budget to be set aside as an “annual lump sum appropriation for unforeseen expenditures arising from the occurrence of calamities.”
At least 20 people have been found dead after the super typhoon struck the municipalities in northern Palawan. 12 people have been found dead in the municipality of Coron according to the town’s disaster report, that indicated that most of the bodies found were from other island municipalities and were driven by strong waves and winds to the area.
Clara Reyes, Mayor of Coron, described the aftermath as follows: “We have no electricity, no water and our food supply can only last for six days. The problem is the municipality has no money to pay for the cargoes of relief goods, these are all commercial flights. Therefore, when we talk about relief goods of course they [the commercial flights? the companies?] don’t have any humanitarian consideration.”
“When the typhoon came, it was like you [were] behind a commercial jet that is ready to take off. That’s how it felt, what it sounded like. It lasted for three hours, and there was a lull of maybe two hours. I think that was the tail of the storm, and after two hours it started again,” Reyes said.
She conveyed the desperation of her distress call: “We are in urgent need of food, basically rice, drinking water; we need medicines like antibiotics, medicines for cough, fever; mosquito nets, blankets, clothes – because 85 percent of our people have lost their homes, including their belongings, so that they can rebuild their lives and they can have at least clothes [on] their backs.”
Meanwhile, Busuanga, the adjacent municipality of Coron, has only recorded three casualties at their end, while Cullion island town posted five deaths, based on separate disaster reports of the towns.
No one was reported injured in Busuanga, while Coron has 18 injured persons, and Cullion with 12 others.
No reports have been made available regarding the extent of damage in Linapacan, another island municipality in northern Palawan.
