THE ‘poor’ emergency response of the government (limited relief packs and inadequate shelter kits) against the immense emergency need of the thousands of victims of Typhoon Odette in Southern Leyte will likely drag the horrid aftermath for weeks.
And should the passive and rather snail-paced stream of help persists, the province’s recovery and rebuilding phase may yet be farfetched.
Limited food relief
The regional social welfare and development office has claimed that it has already saturated the entire province of Southern Leyte and a number of Leyte towns in the distribution of family food packs.
Around 53,389 family food packs were already released and distributed by DSWD- 8 to the 25 Southern Leyte and Leyte towns badly hit by Typhoon Odette.
Regional Director Grace Subong of the DSWD -8 made the claim during last week’s media briefing, but admitted that the family packs may not be enough as they’re only good for three days.
“The food pack contains 6 kilos of rice, four cans of corned beef, four cans of tuna flakes, two cans of sardines, five sachets of coffee, and five sachets of cereal drink. It is sufficient for a family of five for two to three days,” she said.
When asked if the welfare agency intends to sustain the massive emergency relief operations, Subong said they may do so depending on the situation and if a need for it arises.
“We have an ongoing production of food packs at DSWD regional resource operations center in Palo, Leyte. We also received 20,000 FFPs from our central office, 7,000 FFPs from Cordillera Administrative Region, and 10,000 FFPs from Bicol region,” Subong said during the press brief last Wednesday.
The agency claimed it had already given its second batch of family relief packs to some 200 households of the hardest hit island town of Limasawa.
The want for shelter kits
The hundreds of victims who are still reeling from the massive destruction from Typhoon Odette, which left many houses destroyed, leaving families homeless and in great need of emergency shelters, are likely to struggle through extensively the sore situation.
DSWD 8 admitted it seriously lacks supply of emergency shelter kits such as tarps, sakoline or laminated sacks which, the availability of them could otherwise temporarily serve as living quarters for households who had their houses totally or partially destroyed.
‘Sustained’ and ‘adequate’
President Rodrigo Duterte in his visit to the ‘Odette’ ravaged city of Maasin in Southern Leyte on day 2 of the aftermath has called on the agency to secure the ‘sustained’ food and ‘adequate’ emergency shelter support of the government to the victims.
It seemed however that in the last two weeks after the president made the appeal, the relevant agencies of government seemed hardly able to quickly comply with the presidential order.
Except for saying that it is facing a lot of challenges, the regional welfare department did not explain if it lacks fund for the procurement of the needed emergency relief packs.
Financial help?
Director Subong said the welfare department is now contemplating on giving ‘Odette’ victims cash assistance.
It may be recalled that during the onslaught of Super Typhoon Yolanda eight years ago the victims were given cash help by the government: 30,000 for totally damage houses and 15,000 for partially damaged houses.
That was on top of the massive emergency cash for work program given by the Taiwan based Tzu Chi Foundation.
Dependent on others
Without directly admitting that it badly needs the help of private and non-government organizations, the regional welfare official however has sounded rather reliant and dependent on the generosity of any outside help.
According to Director Subong, there are now stream of food packs, water and shelter kits from private and non-government organization flowing albeit intermittently into some hard-hit areas.
Lack of international help
Unlike the massive and aggressive emergency and relief activities during the onslaught of Super Typhoon Yolanda, where victims and survivors availed of extensive help from various international donors – government and private, that is not the case now with ‘Odette,’ even if the massive destruction it wrought to infrastructures and agriculture (now reaches in billions) is no inferior to the brutishness of Yolanda.
According to the regional disaster risk reduction and management council RDRRMC, there’s but only two international humanitarian organization as of press time that has so far coordinated with them to conduct assessment in the ground zero areas of typhoon Odette.