MANILA - The Philippines shifted its efforts on Sunday to
sending relief in northern provinces devastated by floods and cut
off by landslides as the death toll and damages from two typhoons
this month rose to art least 530.
Rescue teams, using shovels and their bare hands to avoid
triggering more landslides, continued to search for bodies in the
areas of northern Luzon island that remained isolated.
"The most important thing is to open roads so we can send relief
goods because we cannot hope to find alternate routes," Defence
Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said in a TV interview.
"We have a massive push using our assets -- the armed forces,
coast guard, police, and the U.S. forces are in the north."
U.S. troops holding military exercises nearby sent a C130
transport planer and three Chinook helicopters to help bring food
and medicines to Baguio City in mountainous Benguet province, 250
kms north of the capital and nearby areas cut off by
landslides.
"As of now, food and relief materials can only be delivered by
helicopters because it will take 2-5 days to clear up roads and
bridges washed out by floods and landslides," said
Lieutenant-Colonel Ernesto Torres, spokesman for the national
disaster agency.
Lieutenant-Colonel Romeo Brawner, army spokesman said: "We are
now slowly diverting our attention from rescue operations to
disaster relief operations."
BOULDERS BLOCKING ROADS
Olive Luces, head of the civil defence office in the northern
Cordillera region said the main access roads to Baguio City were
still cut off by landslides, with boulders twice as high as
commuter vans blocking the winding highway snaking through the
mountains.
The latest report of the national disaster agency placed the
death toll from Typhoon Parma, which hit the Philippines a week
ago, at 193, including 134 from Benguet province alone.
But Luces said at least 152 died in Benguet, with 25 deaths in
the nearby Mt. Province not included in the official report by the
national headquarters.
Initial estimates of damage from the two storms on production of
rice, the country's staple, was estimated at 478,000 tonnes,
equivalent to 7 percent of the forecast harvest of 6.5 million
tonnes in the fourth quarter, Jesus Emmanuel Paras, Agriculture
undersecretary, said on Saturday.
Manila, the world's biggest rice buyer, is considering importing
rice to augment its supply for 2010 after the typhoon damage, with
Vietnam and Thailand eager to provide the grain.
Teodoro said total damage to crops and infrastructure from the
two storms amounted to at least 15 billion pesos , with the
Philippines now rushing a 10 billion peso additional budget for
2009 to fund rehabilitation efforts.
Besides setting off landslides in the mountains, rains, dumped
by Typhoon Parma have swollen rivers and reservoirs, forcing dams
used for hydropower and irrigation to release water and causing
more flooding in areas downstream.
Parma first hit the Philippines on October 3 and hovered around
the northern part of the main Luzon island throughout the week
before weakening and moving out to sea.
The floods and mudslides came two weeks after another storm,
Ketsana, inundated areas in and around the capital Manila, killing
337 people and forcing half a million from their homes.