Palawan folk displaced by floods get aid
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY—More than 1,000 families in Palawan displaced by floods triggered by torrential rains early this week have started to receive relief goods from the provincial government as local communities try to recover from the devastation.
Lawyer Christian Jay Cojamco, the provincial information officer, said 4,616 people (1,281 families) were the initial beneficiaries of the aid. The provincial Social Welfare ad Development Office has initially distributed 500 food packs in every flood-affected town.
State of calamity
He said the relief packs from the provincial government were meant to augment the goods distributed by local governments units (LGUs).
“We are still waiting for the final data because the LGUs are still conducting validation of the evacuees,” Cojamco said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
He said they were still consolidating the results of the rapid data and needs analysis of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) for a possible declaration of a state of calamity in the affected towns
“Right how, there is still no municipality that has declared a state of calamity so we still have no basis for the province to [issue a similar declaration],” Cojamco said.
The affected families were in the municipalities of Aborlan, Narra, Sofronio Española and Brooke’s Point, according to the PDRRMO.
The province’s disaster response council will convene on Friday to further assess the damage and discuss the possibility of declaring a province-wide state of calamity.
The Office of the Provincial Agriculture has also yet to release a report on crop and fishery losses.
Last weekend, the combined effects of three weather systems—intertropical convergence zone and shear line that was aggravated by a low pressure area affecting the southwestern side of Palawan—triggered widespread flooding, prompting evacuations in the province.
Sonny Pajarilla, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration weather specialist, on Monday said the nonstop downpour netted a record volume of 342 millimeters of rainfall that broke the 50-year record of 269.3 mm in December 1975.
Five people, including two children, also died when their van was swept away by floods at the border of Aborlan town and Puerto Princesa City on Sunday night.
