MMDA, NCRPO launch efforts to help Yolanda victims

MANILA, Philippines - The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) have launched separate efforts to help the victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda.

The MMDA asked billboard operators in Metro Manila yesterday to donate advertising tarpaulins to be used as temporary shelter by victims in Samar and Leyte.

MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino said advertising tarpaulins, particularly large ones, are waterproof and can be rigged as tents.

“Many residents have lost their homes and even evacuation centers have been destroyed. We have to send all the help we can to these people so they can recover the soonest possible time,” he said.

“Instead of these tarpaulins rotting in their warehouses, it is better that advertising agencies hand them over to government relief units where it can be put to good use,” Tolentino added.

The MMDA has started gathering all illegal billboard tarpaulins it had earlier collected for distribution to Samar and Leyte.

When Typhoon Pablo struck Mindanao in December last year, the MMDA sent a truckload of confiscated tarpaulins to New Bataan, Compostela Valley and Cateel, Davao Oriental.

Salary deduction

The NCRPO, on the other hand, will deduct P100 from the salary its 18,000 police officers and personnel are supposed to receive on Nov. 15, an official said yesterday.

Chief Superintendent Dennis Peña, NCRPO’s deputy director for operations, said the salary deduction is on a voluntary basis.

“Every policeman should sign first a waiver signifying his approval to the deductions. But those who are not in favor will neither be forced to do so nor be sanctioned,” Peña said.

The NCRPO intends to raise P1.8 million they would send to the provinces hardest hit by Yolanda.

Peña was among the NCRPO and Philippine National Police (PNP) officials who joined disaster-trained policemen dispatched to Tacloban City and neighboring areas to prevent looting.

“There is no water, food and other basic needs… there. We expect each policeman in the NCRPO to donate a small portion of (his) salary,” he said in an interview.

As soon as they get hold of the money, Peña said NCRPO director Chief Superintendent Marcelo Garbo Jr. would coordinate with the police contingent in Tacloban City, where the PNP maintains a command post.