U.S. continues to support Philippine disaster relief

Since its June 25 arrival in the Sulu Sea, the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier group has supported Philippine disaster relief efforts in the aftermath of Typhoon Frank (Fengshen).

U.S. military personnel are supporting immediate rescue, recovery, and disaster relief efforts being carried out by Philippine authorities.

 They have been directly coordinating with Philippine and provincial government officials, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) and the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC),

 U.S. Ambassador Kristie A. Kenney said, “As President Bush said, friends help friends in a time of need and because of the strength of our friendship and partnership, U.S. and Philippine officials on the ground in Iloilo City were able to quickly mobilize a joint disaster relief effort.”

 Seven U.S. Navy Seahawk helicopters from USS Ronald Reagan, USS Howard and USS Thach have been working around the clock with the AFP, the NDCC and provincial government leaders to transport and deliver potable water and food supplies to the hardest hit areas in the Visayan region.

 Among the affected provinces are  Iloilo, Aklan, and Antique on Panay Island and the North and South Gigante Islands. 

 Over 28,000 bottles of water, 10,000 pounds of rice, and many other non-perishable food items have been delivered with operations continuing in the coming days. 

 U.S. military engineering teams have been working also with their Philippine counterparts to restore electrical power in particular at major hospitals in the Iloilo region.

 In addition to the P4 million ($100,000) worth of essential relief goods donated through the PNRC, the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is sending a chartered aircraft to arrive June 29 with relief supplies, worth P 28.6 million ($650,000), sufficient for 20,000 beneficiaries. PR

Bodies reach Cebu, task of identifying starts

The stench of the decomposing bodies may have been hard to bear, but relatives of the victims in the sinking of MV Princess of the Stars overcame the gruesome sight and the smell to try to identify their loved ones.

A total of 49 bodies arrived yesterday on board MV Cebu Princess of embattled Sulpicio Lines Inc.

The bodies were loaded in three ten-footer vans while some were in wooden crates.

Six of the victims have been initially identified, but the forensics experts will still have to validate them before the bodies can be released to the next of kin.

No relatives were however allowed to meet the cadavers at the port as authorities made sure that proper measures would be taken to prevent the spread of disease.

Staff from the Bureau of Quarantine met the bodies and sprayed them with disinfectants before morticians handled them.

Police also provided very tight security.

After they bodies were disinfected, they were loaded by morticians into flatbed trucks to be brought to the morgue of Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes where the forensics experts from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) would examine them for identification purposes.

To prevent an onslaught of people and kibitzers, the kin of the victims were taken from the Cebu City Sports Center to the morgue by groups on board buses hired by the city government.

By allowing them to view the bodies, authorities hope to also speed up the identification of the victims.

The task of identifying the dead proved too much for some of the relatives, who fainted at the sight of the cadavers.

Most of the victims are already beyond recognition and were naked making it hard for relatives to identify them.

“Di naman mailhan oy, guba naman kaayo ang ilang hitsura,” one of the grieving relatives who viewed the bodies said while being led by volunteers.

Relatives were able to identify six of the victims through their scars, tattoos, rings and garments.

The initial identification would be validated by the NBI, possibly by taking samples for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test from the victims and the nearest kin for confirmation.

Of the 49 bodies, 32 are that of adult males, 14 adult females and three children.

The six that have been initially identified are Esmeralda Lequigan, Juvelyn Requilme, SPO3 Adolfo Villareal, Julie Mendoza, Roel Lariba and Russel Bucag.

Ryan Bernard Go, vice president for deck maintenance of Sulpicio Lines, who oversaw the operation in the port yesterday, said they have instructed their men not to remove anything from the bodies that might help the relatives easily identify them.

He is also appealing to the relatives to be patient on these arrangements in spite of the delays to avoid more confusion and chaos.

“We ask the relatives of the victims to be patient. As long as they have the proper documents we’ll release the bodies to them and we’ll take care of the families,” Go said.

The same vessel that brought the bodies to Cebu was scheduled to head back to Romblon last night to help in the retrieval operation.

Go also said, the casket containing the body of Armand Barret, one of the passengers, was scheduled to arrive from Manila on board a Cebu Pacific flight yesterday afternoon.  Five of the victim’s relatives reportedly accompanied his remains.

The help desk of the Department of Social Welfare and Development has required the families to fill up forms that would help in the identification of bodies.

Aside from that, screening, evaluation and counseling sessions are also done on the most affected kin and also prepare them what to expect when it’s their turn to view the cadavers. — Edwin Ian Melecio/NLQ