Isolated Batanes island-town running out of goods
TUGUEGARAO CITY—The continued bad weather caused by recent typhoons and the southwest monsoon (“habagat”) has been taking tolls on villagers in the country’s northernmost island-town of Itbayat in Batanes.
Basic commodities such as rice, corn, feeds and other products have been scarce, no thanks to the inclement weather that has been affecting the island for over two weeks now, officials said.
Gasoline and diesel supplies on the island were also almost depleted, they added.
Nilda Salengua Garcia, Itbayat municipal planning and development officer and the designated municipal disaster risk reduction and management officer, told the Inquirer on Sunday that cargo ships and boats from Basco and mainland Luzon have yet to arrive on the island.
“We are awaiting ships and boats. They cannot travel due to the rough seas,” she added.
Food packs
With residents finding it hard to source their basic commodities on their own, the Itbayat municipal social welfare office has distributed food packs to villagers, “which will last for a week.”
“Of course, (the food so far distributed) will not last for two weeks especially those with many members of a household,” Garcia added.
She said that the social welfare office has also prepared another round of food packs if the boats carrying supplies would not arrive next week.
Two light planes finally descended on the island on Sunday to transport passengers and ferry students from Itbayat to Basco, the provincial capital located on Batan Island.
However, it only able to take a round-trip flight between Itbayat and Basco due to a lack of aviation gas in Itbayat, she added.
According to Garcia, their island town has been isolated for over two weeks now.
“It has been 16 days and counting. Please stop habagat (southwest monsoon) … rice and corn are almost empty. Please pray for us, many students are also stranded here,” she said.
Way of life
Coping with bad weather has been part of the way of life for Itbayat residents who depend on goods arriving by boat or plane from Basco, Garcia said.
A three-hour boat ride across choppy seas or a seven-minute to 10-minute flight from Basco to Itbayat aboard light planes—mostly six-seater ones—have been the common transport of villagers on the island.
However, even going to Basco from Metro Manila by plane was just as difficult.
On Saturday, a Philippine Air Force’s (PAF) C-130 plane flight from Manila to Basco, which was ferrying residents, was canceled due to the “inclement weather.”
In a public advisory shared by the Batanes provincial government, the PAF said that its decision to cancel the flight “was made to ensure the safety of all passengers and crew, which is our highest priority.”
“We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. We will continue to monitor the weather situation and provide updates as soon as operations can safely resume,” it added.
Villagers hoped that a supertyphoon like “Ferdie” (international name: Meranti), which caused havoc in Itbayat on Sept. 14, 2016, would no longer hit the island, even though they have been experiencing prolonged rains and bad weather in recent weeks due to the southwest monsoon.
The town was also struck by an earthquake on July 27, 2019, which left nine persons dead and injured 60 others.
Itbayat, which has a population of 2,937 in the 2024 government census, is the country’s northernmost municipality, located even nearer to the southernmost tip of Taiwan, just 156 kilometers away.
The town, officially created in 1935, has small and almost uninhabited islands named Di’nem Island, Siayan, Misanga, Ah’li and Mavulis Island, the northernmost island of the Philippine archipelago, town records showed.
The town’s history showed that between 2,000 and 4,000 years ago, Austronesians arrived on Itbayat and became the ancestors of the island’s people. Torongan Cliff is home to the Torongan Cave, which the island’s ancestors used as their abode. The early people of the island also established the sacred Axurud, the oldest stone tomb in Batanes.
