Marcos: Water, medicine to be sent to flood-hit Caraga areas

President Ferdinand ''Bongbong'' Marcos Jr. on Friday promised that assistance, including medicines and potable water, would be given to families in the Caraga Region affected by a low-pressure area trough.

Marcos, who led a situation briefing in Agusan del Sur's Prosperidad town where he was given updates on the situation in the region, said that through the efforts of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the national government was able to lend water purification machines to the affected areas in the region.

“We’ll continue to provide what we can, but we have to have longer term, a more extended solution. And what we usually do sa ibang lugar, nagpapadala kami ng purification system na galing pa sa MMDA ‘yung iba (we sent purification systems, some were from the MMDA),” Marcos said.

“But that seems to be a practical stopgap measure in terms of providing water supply because as we all know that’s going to be critical,” he added.

For his part, DILG Secretary Benhur Abalos said that there were still 15 water purification machines that could be sent to Caraga as some of these were deployed in the Davao Region.

Meanwhile, Department of Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa Jr. said the DOH had provided its quick-release funds to the regional office in Caraga.

“The regional office has already provided some of the medicines, some of them are for the wash, water, and sanitation, and hygiene. We provided already a bladder [tank] for water. And we also provided aqua tabs because we detected coliform in the water source. So, we are trying to avoid any outbreak of waterborne diseases,” explained Herbosa.

Early this month, heavy rains caused flooding in the town of Prosperidad as bad weather hit the southern portion of the country. — DVM, GMA Integrated News