Duterte orders military, police to use all gov’t assets for recovery efforts in Odette-hit areas

President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the military and police to utilize all government assets to support the recovery and rehabilitation efforts in the typhoon-ravaged communities.

Duterte made the assurance on Thursday before local government officials and the military in Lapu-Lapu City, where he monitored the effects of Typhoon Odette, which affected the central and southern Philippines last week.

“The military and the police must come into the picture. I don’t know how bad it is here," Duterte said at a command conference aired on Saturday.

"The military and the police and all the good planners must come in. My plan is [that] all assets of the government must be utilized."

He also tasked the Philippine Coast Guard and Philippine Navy to deliver the relief assistance.

“Ang kailangan [ay] to deliver kung hindi madala sa along the coastal ay Coast Guard na lang or the smaller craft of the Navy can do it, kasi may lugar [or] places that are really badly in need of food, walang kain pagdating namin kahapon,” he added.

(We need to deliver the aid. If it can’t be delivered, the ships of the Coast Guard and Navy can do it. There are some areas or places that are really badly in need of food. They do not have food.)

Duterte has promised to raise P10 billion for the rehabilitation and recovery efforts in the typhoon-affected areas, according to Malacañang.

"Now, I think that we have already gathered that much and is a matter of distribution," he said.

Duterte also said the National Housing Authority (NHA) would provide P100 million in aid to each of the provinces devastated by Odette.

1,500 military personnel deployed in affected areas

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said at least 1,500 military personnel were deployed in the communities pummeled by Odette.

According to Lorenzana, a ship from the Navy delivered more than 200 tons of relief goods, including clean water, generators, and medicine in Cebu.

He added that most of the donations came from Manila, adding that "everything is dedicated [to] the delivery of the relief goods" in several affected provinces.

Over 4,500 combined personnel of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), meanwhile, were deployed for disaster response operations in Visayas and Mindanao. 

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) on Saturday said the number of deaths due to Odette had reached 367 as of Friday.

A total of 343 cities and municipalities were placed under a state of calamity due to the impact of the typhoon. — VBL, GMA News