UN official: Airdropping food for 'Yolanda' victims can't be done

MANILA, Philippines - Dropping food from aircraft to disaster-hit areas can only be applied to "extreme situations" and not necessarily applicable in the "Yolanda" catastrophe, a United Nations (UN) official said.

"We've got to be careful. In food, you've got to consider the falling," Bernard Kerblat, UN High Commissioner for Refugees representative for the Philippines, said in a televised interview on ANC Thursday night.

The suggestion of air-dropping items for the typhoon victims came from various groups as the government's relief efforts have been criticized as slow and disorganized.

Kerblat explained that the impact of dropping can cause damage on the ground and may not address needs of relief operations for the survivors whose homes had been swept off.

"First of all, in the context of the Philippines, we have a lot of bilaterals and we tell them not to do airdrops out of an aircraft. Why? Because it wouldn't serve the purpose," he said.

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"However, there are techniques to do it and we've done it safely before," he added.

Kerblat said, however, that  relief from foreign nations led by the UN are mulling on giving  relief goods using the sling-drop method from helicopters hovering over a distressed area.

"There are a lot of high-level discussions on this and it is being considered. One thing that we have agreed yesterday is to think outside the box ... from the usual methodology," he said.

Another idea is to omit traditional methods for accountability such as in coming up with lists of beneficiaries as volunteer teams enter villages before they distribute the goods.

"You take a village, it's destroyed and you distribute on the spot, you cut 30 minutes to two hours in the process. It can be done and it should be done and will be done in order to move as fast as possible," Kerblat said.

On Thursday, UN humanitarian aid chief Valerie Amos admitted that aid through national relief has not reached survivors fast enough.

"They are already saying it has taken too long to arrive. Ensuring a faster delivery is our immediate priority ... I do feel we have let people down. We need to get assistance to them now," Amos said. - Camille Diola