Antique folk feel left out

MANILA, Philippines - “Is Antique not a part of the Philippines?”

The websites of Bangong Antique and Kruhayyy Antique raised this question, as residents of the province, also battered by Typhoon Yolanda, reportedly feel left out in the government’s massive relief operations. 

They also noted that President Aquino reportedly failed to mention Antique as among the provinces ravaged by Yolanda.

As of yesterday, Yolanda left 10 people dead, 12 missing and 91 injured in Antique, according to the Office of Civil Defense in Western Visayas.

More than a thousand residents in Panagatan, an island barangay in Antique’s northern Caluya town, are reportedly badly in need of relief assistance.

“The people in Panagatan are sick and dying. Panagatan is composed of small islets with more than 2,000 inhabitants, mostly fishermen and seaweed farmers,” Kruhayyy Antique said in its website.

The Caluya municipal government distributed food packs consisting of bottled water, two packs of noodles and two sardines last Nov. 12. Since then, no relief aid from the provincial or national government has reached the locals.

A letter posted on the websites of Kruhayyy Antique and Bangong Antique read: “Mr. President, it seems that you have forgotten Antique to include in your state of calamity. Is it because we don’t have the likes of Mar Roxas or Senate President Franklin Drilon or Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago or the Osmeñas, the Hagedorns and the Romualdezes or Imelda?”

While relief aid from the national government has been flowing into Iloilo, Aklan and Capiz, the two websites lamented that assistance for typhoon victims in Antique is only trickling in.