LA TRINIDAD, BENGUET—As nature’s fury was unleashed through massive landslides in Benguet and widespread flooding in Pangasinan on Thursday and Friday, local government officials were shocked by the extent of the devastation in their areas.
As the weather started to improve on Saturday, many local officials said the disaster had caught them unprepared.
Benguet provincial officials were everywhere during and after the onslaught of “Pepeng” (international codename: Parma) as a tropical depression—giving assistance to victims and leading rescue operations—but they acknowledged they were ill-prepared for the extent of the damage.
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said it would need over a billion pesos to repair and rebuild roads and bridges damaged by Pepeng and Tropical Storm “Ondoy” (international codename: Ketsana).
Initial reports from regional DPWH offices showed that the agency would need about P1.43 billion to repair the damaged and destroyed infrastructure in Luzon, according to Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr.
Ebdane said roads connecting Pangasinan and La Union provinces would be repaired first.
Many regional roads and infrastructure were destroyed by the storms or were covered by landslides, making travel difficult.
Caught with pants down
Local officials said that what caught them with their pants down were the suddenness and intensity of the rains that triggered landslides.
Worse, they said, the province’s terrain hampered rescue efforts.
Members of rescue and disaster response teams said they did not lack training for disaster management.
But like local officials, they said they lacked equipment—from ropes and shovels to rubber boats and bulldozers.
Gov. Nestor Fongwan said the province suffered its worse damage in years just because of lack of equipment.
“I am sorry to say it but we were really unprepared,” he told the Inquirer.
Benguet has two loaders and a backhoe, but when landslides struck Halsema Highway and other roads at the same time, the equipment were not enough, said Aning Binay-an, a provincial engineer.
Mayors Murphy Mackay (Bokod), Florencio Bentres (Tuba) and Robert Canuto (Kapangan) activated their towns’ disaster councils.
Shovels, pick axes
But disaster response teams had to make do with their own shovels and pick axes to clear blocked roads.
Calls for loader and backhoe services swamped the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC) at the provincial capitol here, but Fongwan told the callers to be patient as the province’s loaders were being used in more crucial areas.
Good for La Trinidad Mayor Artemio Galwan, the town hall had in its stockroom an imported rubber boat that was earlier donated to the town.
The boat’s importance was never realized until Sitio Toyong in Barangay Pico was flooded last week, which required transporting stranded families.
Eveleyn Bayote, Barangay Puguis chair, said village officials were on top of the retrieval operations at Little Kibungan.
109 bodies recovered
As of Monday, rescue teams digging through mud, rocks and debris that swamped the mountainside community on Thursday night recovered 109 bodies.
Robert Namuro, Barangay Buyagan chair, said the residents were willing to help local officials in retrieving the bodies of 19 villagers who died when landslides buried four houses in his village also on Thursday.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is considering a vacant lot owned by Benguet State University in Barangay Balili as relocation site for families displaced by the massive slide in Barangay Puguis.
Little Kibungan was assessed in 2005 as a high-hazard site and families there were recommended to be relocated, the DENR said. The residents, however, ignored the warnings and decided to stay.
New houses were even built in the area, the DENR said.
In Pangasinan province, when reports that Pepeng would return to the country, Dagupan City started preparing for the worst.
Mayor Alipio Fernandez Jr. asked the City Disaster Coordinating Council (CDCC) to pool and prepare equipment and stocks of relief goods that would be needed in a worst-case scenario.
“But we never expected that this water would be this high,” said city administrator Alvin Fernandez.
As high as 10 feet
Almost the entire city was under water, with some sections experiencing flood as high as 10 feet. But preparation helped in preventing loss of lives and property, Fernandez said.
The city tried to cope amid the lack of water supply in many areas as most pumping stations failed to function during the floods.
In Rosales town, Mayor Ricardo Revita said he went around the town on Thursday morning carrying a megaphone to ask residents in villages along the Agno River to leave.
He again set out at 2 p.m. that day to reiterate the warning. “We even distributed relief packs to those we knew would be affected, for them to bring to the evacuation centers. But after getting their packs, they returned to their houses,” he said.
Bued Bridge
Betty Sumait, assistant director of the Bureau of Maintenance, said the Bued Bridge in Pangasinan, which is part of the national highway that links Pangasinan to La Union, Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte, remained impassable to vehicles after it collapsed due to the strong current of the Bued River.
In Nueva Ecija, Gov. Aurelio Umali said the province could take care of its rescue and relief operations.
Umali said the provincial government had sent rubber boats to save residents marooned by rising floodwater.
At the height of flooding in the province last week, he said the provincial government’s mobile kitchen was tapped to serve food in evacuation centers.
What local officials and farmers did not anticipate, Umali said, was the unprecedented flooding of more than 50,000 hectares of rice land in the province.
In Ilocos Norte province, Laoag City Mayor Michael Fariñas has ordered local agencies to speed up the rehabilitation of damaged structures like street and traffic lights, school buildings and houses.
“I want to see those lights up before October ends,” Fariñas said Monday.
He said residents whose houses were destroyed could avail themselves of the city’s core-shelter program under the Gawad Kalinga project.
Duplexes
The city government hopes to build duplexes for Pepeng victims although the project was intended as a low-cost housing program for city residents.
The city social welfare and development office said 29 families whose houses were destroyed could be relocated to the GK housing site.
In Ilocos Sur, what saved residents were awareness and their compliance with orders from local officials to seek safe grounds.
Gov. Deogracias Victor Savellano said the province, which recorded only one typhoon-related fatality, was spared from devastation because residents were aware of the incoming storm and they were able to prepare.
Pepeng was classified as a typhoon when it first made landfall on Oct. 3. Lingering in the country for days, it made two more landfalls as a storm and subsequently a tropical depression.
Singson family’s chopper
Former Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson and his son, Ilocos Sur Rep. Ronald Singson, used the family’s helicopter to bring help to isolated areas, like the five villages of Santa town.
In Candon City, emergency response teams composed of city employees, policemen, firemen, barangay officials and volunteers were tapped to evacuate residents. Reports from Delmar Cariño, Frank Cimatu, Yolanda Sotelo, Cristina Arzadon and Leoncio Balbin Jr., Inquirer Northern Luzon; Anselmo Roque, Inquirer Central Luzon; and Kristine L. Alave in Manila
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