San Fernando City, La Union/Baguio City/Camp Olivas,
Pampanga/Meycauayan, Bulacan – Two days after tropical storm “Mario”
(international name: “Fung Wong”) exited the country, the death toll has
reached 12 – with the bodies of three drowning victims retrieved in La
Union – and the number of people affected rising past 1 million.
Agriculture absorbed a P1.1-billion blow, disaster officials said.
Added to the latest list of fatalities of the National Disaster Risk
Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) were Clyde Maverick Acosta, 5,
of Luna town; Darryl Opeña, 23, of San Juan town; and Kagawad Federico
Nillo, 60, of Barangay Rimos, also in Luna.
The NDRRMC also recorded 258,976 families or 1,160,050 people
affected by the storm in 1,126 barangays in 27 provinces in eight
regions in Luzon and parts of Central Visayas.
Ilocos Sur is the latest to declare a state of calamity due to the
damage caused by Mario’s onslaught to some 2,800 hectares of ricefields
worth P77,718,830. Damage to infrastructure was estimated at P13
million, with 22 houses destroyed in the 1st District of the province.
In the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), damage to agriculture
was put at P76,425,214 in six provinces, with Apayao having the largest
in damages on their rice crops, amounting to P68.74 million.
In Pampanga, Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council
(RDRRMC-3) Chairperson Josie Timoteo reported P250 million worth of
damage absorbed by the agriculture sector in Central Luzon. Bulacan bore
the brunt of the damage, estimated at P94 million.
Timoteo said strong winds and rains that inundated several farmlands
incurred losses at P235-million for palay; P569 for corn; P4.5-million
for HVCC; P328, 950 livestock and poultry and P7.6 million for
fisheries.
In severely affected province like Bulacan, she said cost of damage
to fisheries reached P4.24 million; rice at P56.6-million; and
vegetables at P32.2 million.
A total of 38 barangays in Pampanga and Bulacan remained submerged in flood water as of yesterday.
In Meycauayan City, Bulacan, thousand of residents coping with the
flood due to the overflowing of the Meycauayan-Obando River System
received a truckload of domestic provisions from Governor Wilhelmino M.
Sy-Alvarado.
Apart from distributing 14,267 packs of relief goods containing food
supplies enough to feed a family of five for a whole week, Alvarado
assured the flood victims of medical services in all public hospitals in
the province through the “Point of Care” program, in which zero billing
is given to poor patients.
The DA said total amount of damage to the agricultural sector wrought
by recent storms – Mario and “Luis” (international name: “Kalmaegi”) –
have run up to P1.57 billion.
In terms of agriculture, Nueva Ecija suffered the brunt of these
weather disturbances having incurred the highest amount of production
losses with P245.9 million; followed by Pangasinan with P245.9 million;
and Ilocos Norte with P195.9 million.
