By Norman Bordadora
Philippine Daily Inquirer

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines—President Aquino on Tuesday declared a state of national calamity and vowed to mobilize assistance for victims of the worst storm to hit his presidency.

“I need to ask myself. Did the government do enough to prevent this kind of a tragedy? I don’t think I can accept that we have done everything,” Aquino told evacuees at the Cagayan de Oro Central School, during a lightning visit to the disaster zone four days after Tropical Storm “Sendong” struck. “I know we could have done more.”

The President himself has been criticized for attending a Christmas party for his Presidential Security Group Sunday night as Sendong rampaged across Mindanao and the Visayas, igniting flash floods and causing death and destruction.

As of 6 a.m. Tuesday, the official death toll had reached 957. More than 340,000 people, or 63,000 families, have been displaced, according to the National Disaster Risk and Reduction Management Council.

Officials have set up 62 evacuation centers, half of which are in the worst-hit cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan.

“My concern right now is specifically those missing,” said Aquino, who put the number at 49. “Let us exhaust all possible means to try and find all of these missing individuals,” he told national and local officials at the base of the Philippine Air Force Tactical Operations Group 10.

The Philippine National Red Cross listed 713 deaths and 563 missing.

The President also stopped at Iligan and Dumaguete to inspect the devastation and help distribute relief goods at the evacuation centers.

“We will be assisting not only Cagayan (de Oro) and Iligan, but also Negros Oriental and Ilocos Norte, Iloilo. We’d like to assure you that we are going to fine-tune all of the systems in place so that we can prevent similar tragedy from happening.”

The President said the calamity funds stood at P1.17 billion. He said he declared the state of national calamity to start the mechanisms from which the government could get additional relief funding.

“We can get P3 million from the (Asian Development Bank) while there are P500 million on standby that the World Bank would loan in case the funds that have long been prepared for these kinds of calamity run short,” he said.

“There are also offers of help from Japan, America, Australia, Russia, China and other countries,” he added.

Among the expected expenses are the repair of a vital bridgeway, which will cost P54 million; the reconstruction and replacement of some components of the water systems, P90 million; and a thousand automatic water level sensors for 18 major river basins, P150 million.

Many blame the high death toll to the lack of an early flood warning system. The floodwaters rose swiftly, swallowing and devastating communities.

“The core shelter for both Cagayan (de Oro) and Iligan will be about P150 million,” Mr. Aquino said.

“Plus, part of the reason that we’re here is really to assess the need for the houses, permanent houses. We don’t have an estimate for that yet but there’s an initial 1,000 houses earmarked for Cagayan from the (National Housing Authority),” he added.

The President said that he had formed a multi-agency task force that will look into ways to improve the systems to alleviate the effects of natural disasters.

“There is also going be a fact-finding team to determine exactly where we can still augment the systems and procedures in place so that there are no casualties of this magnitude ever again,” he said.

“I think all of us are aware exactly of certain situations that have happened, deforestation which has always been a problem,” the President said.

“We have a geo-hazard map that identified Isla de Oro as a place that will be a catch basin of floodwaters when a storm comes. Because we know the topography, we have also identified places where the waters will quickly flow,” he said.

“Why were there still residents in these places?” he added. “We don’t have any intention of fixing blame at this time. But it is our obligation to find out what happened.”

Aquino said he had instructed the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Philippine National Police to prevent residents from returning to the danger areas—such riverbanks.

“Going back to danger areas should no longer be permitted. I want that very clear … no settlement in portions already described as extremely dangerous … like Isla de Oro, and neighboring barangays,” the President said.

“To prevent a repeat of this tragedy, we need to know where there were shortcomings, who were at fault and how these should be made accountable,” he said, adding that he had ordered Mujiv Hataman, officer in charge of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, to stop illegal logging.

In Dumaguete, Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman said a family whose home was partially damaged was eligible to get assistance worth P5,000 while families whose homes were totally damaged could get up to P70,000 each.

Soliman said the money will be taken from the P4.1-million funding assistance to be given on condition that the victims do not move back to the riverbanks. With reports from Dona Z. Pazzibugan, Karen Boncocan in Manila, and Alex Pal, Inquirer Visayas, in Dumaguete