Marcos raises concern about Paeng death toll in Maguindanao

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Saturday raised concern about the high fatality count in Maguindanao province due to flooding caused by Severe Tropical Storm Paeng.

At the press briefing, Marcos asked reports from concerned agencies regarding the high death toll in the province saying,  "That seems very high for a flooding incident.”

“I would like to start with the flooding in Maguindanao simply because we have to already look at it dahil ang daming casualty, 67 kaagad. It will be important to us to look back and see why this happened na hindi natin naagapan ito na 67 ang casualty,” he said.

“So, maybe if we can start with that first just to give me a better idea of what happened, what caused the flooding, and bakit hindi natin sila na-evacuate at nagkaganyan ang casualty napakataas,” he added.

Acting Defense Secretary Jose Faustino Jr. then said the figure was corrected to 40 fatalities in the meeting conducted in the BARMM area on Saturday morning.

“The report coming from BARMM initially was 67 [fatalities] for validation. They conducted a meeting this morning in the BARMM area and they have corrected the figure from 67 to 40,” Faustino said.

Based on the presentation, BARMM chief minister Ahod Ebrahim said of the 40 fatalities, 27 were recorded in Datu Odin Sinsuat, six in Upi, five in Datu Blah Sinsuat, and two in Barira.

At least 31 individuals are reportedly injured, while 15 others are missing, according to Ebrahim.

Ebrahim then told the President that the affected residents in the region needed portable water and clean water.

Marcos then directed the government agencies to prioritize delivering clean water and follow-up with purifying systems to the typhoon victims.

“Ang una muna naming [gawin], magpapadala kami bottled water lang, bottled water muna. But this is not going to be sufficient so we will eventually follow it up with, as you say, purifying systems para yung malalayo at least may maiinom silang tubig,” he said.

He also ordered to prioritize the power restoration in hospitals and evacuation centers.

Maguindanao Bai Mariam Mangudadatu said 57.27% of the residents in the province were affected. She said that 83,326 families or 416,630 individuals were affected.

Marcos then asked Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Renato Solidum on why there was no advance warning regarding flooding in the province.

“I just wanted to know why we had no advance warning that flooding in Maguindanao was going to be like this? I don’t think it happened in those areas before,” Marcos asked the DOST secretary.

Solidum said that they already released forecasts of heavy rains and issued flood advisories in Mindanao.

“For the Maguindanao area, it was emphasized that the heavy rainfall due to the trough of low pressure [area] yun nga pong bagyo at shear line yung kaulapan will cause heavy rains in Mindanao, yun po ang nangyari,” Solidum said.

“So essentially, although it is not directly related to the typhoon, there were already forecast that there will be heavy rains and they issued flood advisories in Mindanao,” he added.

Calamity funds

Marcos also directed Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benhur Abalos to help BARMM to access the calamity funds.

“Sec. Benhur Abalos, tulungan natin ang BARMM because they can access calamity funds. Kung kailangan nila ng calamity funds, tulungan natin sila. Kasi as far as I know ang budget ng transition authority still has some funds that they can use so we can facilitate ‘yung kanilang pag-download ng calamity funds kung sakali mang kailangan pa para they have everything they need,” he said.

Abalos said he will heed the President’s call.

Power supply

The President also ordered Department of Energy Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella to restore the power supply in affected areas in the province.

“The general instruction is always to find ways to bring it all back as quickly as possible,” he said.

Fuentabella said that there were no power plants affected in the province. He, however, said that the transmission and distribution lines were affected.

“May affected na transmission at may affected po na distribution lines. Malaki ang coverage kasi. Some of them are already back but we need to come up more comprehensive report that give us a better picture. As far as the generation is concerned, no problem,” he added.

Assistance provided

Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Erwin Tulfo said a total of P426,827 worth of assistance was provided to the affected families in Regions VI, VII, and Caraga.

He said of which P413,282 were from the DSWD and P49,590 were from the local government units.

Tulfo said there is still enough standby funds which totals to P1.5 billion.

“We have a total of P1,512,200,382.42 total standby funds and stockpile which we have enough. But we are already preparing because there is another typhoon loitering outside the Philippine Area Responsibility (PAR) dyan po sa Mindanao,” he said.

The DSWD secretary said he instructed the national resources operation center, which produced food packs, to get ready and be prepared.

Marcos instructed the government agencies to ask help from the LGUs to cater to the needs of the typhoon victims.

“Pero yung iba din kailangan siguraduhin natin na kahit hindi sila nakapunta sa evacuation center nangangailangan sila. Patulong tayo sa mga LGU at puntahan natin ang mga ‘yon,” he said.

Telecommunications

Department Of Information And Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Ivan John Uy reported that telecommunications in some municipalities of the province were unstable.

Uy said that they redeployed satellite phones to municipal mayors.

“We redeployed satellite phones so we are waiting once weather [is better] we can also send it over via chopper,” Uy said. —LBG, GMA News