Bayambang tornado victims cry for help
BAYAMBANG— Here is a typical example of slow and inefficient bureaucracy can make lives miserable for a community.
As of June 19, or six days after a powerful tornado wrought havoc in 13 villages, no relief assistance still appeared forthcoming from the local government that displaced 88 families comprising of 351 persons and killed one resident.
Reason: The local government is still in the process of waiting for resolutions from 13 barangays for the declaration of state of calamity before it can release funds to aid the victims.
Eddie Melicorio, municipal engineer and designated Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Officer, said Friday the municipal council will pass resolution for the state of calamity once the barangay resolutions had reached their office.
He said the local government could not spend their calamity fund unless the resolution for the state of calamity is passed.
The casualty was identified as Bramwell Espejo Salvio, 33 while hurt were Benjie Pacubas, 21, Vilma Pacubas, 47, Briana Joy Pacubas, 2, all from Barangay Inirangan and Pedro Pacubas, 69 from Barangay Inaorenza.
According to some calamity victims themselves from Barangay Buayaen, the hardest hit village in Bayambang where some 30 houses were damaged by the twister at 4:30 p.m., June 13, victims said they were grateful for the token financial assistance for some food from local mediamen who visited the tornado victims to document their plight.
There were 17 houses totally destroyed and 71 others partially in the most destructive tornado that ever hit Bayambang.
Ramon Castillo, 44, of Barangay Buyaen, said he and his wife Rosemarie and their two-year-old daughter had to seek shelter in an adjacent pigpen when the roof of their concrete house was swept away.
He said only some Civilian Volunteer Organization (CVO) members came to them last June 17 and listed their names but neither they nor employees from the local government returned.
The reporters from GMA television came and gave them some noodles. Reporters from various papers followed suit and contributed money among themselves so that some of the tornado victims can buy little food to eat.
“We are waiting for our mayor (Ricardo Camacho) to come but we learned that he has left for the United States together with his wife Zenaida, who is the barangay Captain of Buayaen,” the residents said.
Rosemarie Castillo, wife of Ramon, said the thunderstorm was accompanied by ice pellets as big as a man’s thumb.
The other villages affected by the twister aside from Buayaen were Barangays Ambayat 1st, Ambayat 2nd, Amancosiling Sur, Darawey, Pagdel, Sancagulis, Inanlorenzana, Manambong Sur, Inerengan and San Vicente.
The residents said that a man from another village outside of Buayaen was electrocuted immediately after the twister when he touched a live wire from a fallen electric post. His name was not immediately known.
A report emailed to PUNCH by the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council did not mention of casualty or injury. (Leonardo Micua)
Share your Comments or Reactions
Powered by Facebook Comments
