Typhoon-battered Kalinga needs urgent assistance

BAGUIO CITY – Immediate humanitarian help from the noble hearted is needed in Kalinga province, which was the hardest hit in the country when typhoon “Mina” battered Luzon recently.

Kalinga Gov. Floydelia Diasen is urgently requesting rice, canned goods and other food items for the isolated towns of Pinukpuk and Balbalan, both in upper Kalinga while tents are also needed in Balbalan for temporary schools where six classrooms of an elementary school was totally destroyed by mudslides.

Up to this time, two military Huey helicopters which earlier were ceaselessly hovering over Pinukpuk and Balbalan towns for missing villagers ravaged by mudslides, swollen rivers and landslides are ferrying relief goods and diesel fuel for government heavy equipment doing rehabilitation efforts on the damaged roads and bridges, said Andrew Uy, operations chief of the Office of Civil Defense in the Cordillera region.

Aside from food, Kalinga and Apayao villagers need used clothing and medicines for common illnesses, Diasen said.

Further, Engr. Jojo Valera of the OCD, as he finalized the terminal report to the National Disaster Coordinating Council in Manila, said a total of 27 villagers were killed in Apayao and Kalinga, making these provinces having the highest casualty rate in the country during typhoon Mina.

Four died from drowning in Apayao including a two-year-old boy in Conner town. They were identified as farmer Santos Savedra, 78; Felipe Abawag, 65; Melvin Viernes, 26, Panay, Sta. Marcela, Apayao; and Reiner Abawag, two, all of Karikitan, Conner.

In Kalinga, the OCD said there were 23 killed from mudslides and drowning from flashfloods and swollen rivers, mostly in Pinukpuk town.

Two remain missing in Langiden town in Abra – Pedro Orjel, 70, and another in Calanasan town in Apayao, Cosip Poquin, 70.

More than a thousand villagers in Luna and Conner towns are still living in evacuation centers in schools, a week after the typhoon, the OCD-CAR said.

At least P148.82 million worth of agricultural produce were destroyed in CAR, P35 million of which was in Apayao province.

Some P97.73 million worth of roads and bridges, mostly in Apayao were also destroyed. School buildings destroyed were valued at P136.1 million.

Apayao and Kalinga province officials are currently preparing their rehabilitation plans while asking for outside help at the moment for the immediate needs of typhoon distraught villagers, Valera said. – Artemio Dumlao