Ban Ki-moon arriving Dec. 21

MANILA, Philippines - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will arrive in the country on Dec. 21 to see for himself the extent of the damage of Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) in the Visayas region.

Ban will visit the hardest-hit city of Tacloban, bringing with him the pledge of donations for the UN fund in the amount of $404.6 million (P17.803 billion).

The UN official had made an urgent appeal for humanitarian aid for the typhoon victims in the Philippines. 

“The most vulnerable people on earth depend on your support to enable this work to continue,” Ban said in his opening remarks at the High-level Conference for the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).

“That is why I ask that you give as much as possible to this important fund. These are uncertain economic times for many, but I urge you to give generously and to give early, so CERF can help as many people as possible in 2014,” he said.

UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Louisa Carvalho also stressed the need for continued aid for the typhoon victims in the Visayas.

Carvalho cited the need for support to people wanting to rebuild their homes. She noted the efforts of many people in the hard-hit areas looking for rebuilding materials.

Carvalho went on a donor mission tour of the Yolanda-ravaged areas in Eastern Visayas with Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Corazon Soliman.

The donor mission included representatives of the embassies of Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation, and representatives of the Philippine Disaster Recovery Foundation.

The mission group went in and around Tacloban City, made a visit to the Palo Central School, the DSWD operations center for Eastern Visayas region, the logistics hub for aid flowing into the area, and Barangay 88, a community where 1,000 people was said to have perished.

In Guiuan, the delegation saw emergency shelter for families whose homes were wiped out by the monster typhoon and the powerful storm surge it brought.

In Ormoc City, the mission saw several people clearing debris from a schoolyard, with the crew members being Yolanda survivors, and getting paid by the government under the cash-for-work scheme.

Soliman, for her part, said the DSWD would cease the distribution of food packs to the survivors and instead get them employed under the government’s food-for-work scheme.

On the other hand, the number of casualties from the typhoon has further increased, with 24 more bodies retrieved yesterday.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction Council (NDRRMC) said the death toll has increased to 6,033.

The NDRRMC, however, did not include the 24 bodies recovered.

NDRRMC executive director Eduardo del Rosario said majority of the casualties were from Eastern Visayas with 5,679 deaths (5,184 in Leyte; 265 in Eastern Samar; 224 in Samar; and six in Biliran). Close to 5,000 bodies remain unidentified.

The NDRRMC said the number of missing people remained at 1,779 with 1,671 in Leyte; 38 in Samar; 24 in Palawan; 20 in Eastern Samar; 15 in Antique; five in Cebu; four in Iloilo; and one each in Guimaras and Capiz.

At least 27,468 were injured while 3,423,501 families or 16,074,392 people were badly affected.

The cost of damage increased to P35,547,986,330.67 with P18,226,835,334.29 in infrastructure and P17,321,150,996.38 in agricultural products.

At least P1,095,137,479.67 worth of relief assistance has been provided to the affected families by the DSWD, Department of Health (DOH), local government units, and non-government organizations.

Foreign countries, including Japan and Italy, are still providing humanitarian assistance to the storm survivors. – Jaime Laude, Jose Rodel Clapano, Marvin Sy