17K sacks of food delivered to north Cebu; more to come

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Central Visayas sent 17,000 sacks of food packs to areas badly hit by typhoon Ruby in northern Cebu as of 11 a.m. yesterday.

DSWD-7 Assistant Director for Operations Shalaine Marie S. Lucero said the towns of Sogod, Daanbantayan, Tabogon, Tabuelan, Liloan, Borbon, Samboan, Catmon and Tuburan and Mandaue City received the food packs.

Other towns in the mainland like Cordova and Medellin and Talisay City have yet to receive its share of  food packs.

Lucero said a C-130 plane transported 100 sacks of food packs to Catarman, northern Samar and 20 drums of fuel to Guiuan, Eastern Samar yesterday.

Each sack contains four family food packs. It was the first set of relief goods from Cebu that were transported to Eastern Visayas.

Lucero said a ship from the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Cebu station and another  from the Philippine Navy Naval Forces Central (NavForCen) were being filled with relief goods for transport toBantayan and Camotes Islands as of press time.

The towns of San Francisco and Sta. Fe are expected to receive 3,000 sacks and 2,500 sacks of food packs respectively while Poro is expected to receive 3,000 sacks and Pilar will be allocated 3,500 sacks of food packs.

Madridejos is expected to receive 2,500 sacks while 4,653 sacks of food packs were reserved for Bantayan Island.

Lucero said the sacks of food packs for Bantayan and Camotes islands will be ferried anytime today or tomorrow if the state weather bureau Pagasa lifts its gale warning.

A boat from Consolacion town will arrive at 5 p.m. today and will load up to 500 sacks of food packs.  These relief goods will be brought to Camotes Island. Two other vessels will sail to Pilar, Camotes Island and to Santa Fe, Bantayan Island.

Provide

Commander Rodolfo Villajuan Jr., Philippine Coast Guard Cebu station commander, said only vessels weighing 250 gross tons and above were allowed to sail yesterday.

Lucero told Cebu Daily News that the number of food packs given are based on the number requested by the local government units (LGU).

She said it is the LGUs that should first provide the food for their constituents.

If the LGUs deplete their stocks and the food packs from the DSWD haven’t arrived yet, Lucero said the LGUs can use the rice stocks intended for the day care supplementary feeding program as buffer.

“In case this will happen, they can ask permission from us through sending their request letter via email with an attached requisition and issuance slip (RIS) since we are the only agency that can authorize them to use the rice stocks,¨ she said.

Flat tire

A C-130 plane loaded with 50 personnel from the  Philippine Air Force (PAF), mobile and disaster equipment to clear the runway landed with a flat tire in Borongan, eastern Samar yesterday.

Supplies get loaded into the belly of an air force C-130 Hercules cargo plane. The aircraft was ordered to return to the Benito Ebuen Air Base in Mactan, Cebu midway into its flight to Eastern Samar tot take in a spare landing gear tire another C-130 aircraft that earlier landed in Borongan busted one of its tires. (CDN PHOTO/ CARINE ASUTILLA)

The plane came from Palawan. Col. Philip Lapinid, head of relief operations of Central Command, said the C-130 plane loaded with sacks of food packs and fuel that left for Borongan at 10:20 a.m. returned to Mactan Benito Ebuen Air Base at 10:45 a.m. to fetch the tire.

The plane had to unload at least 10 sacks to make room for the tire, Lapinid said.

The plane then landed in Guiuan to drop off the tire to a waiting helicopter and then headed to Catarman to deliver the food packs.

Flight time

A C-130 plane can carry up to 25,000 pounds of cargo.

Catarman and Borongan are the two designated areas for unloading of relief goods.

The flight time from Cebu to Samar is one hour and 30 minutes.

Maj. Glen Cabalquinto, 2nd Air Division spokesman said they are trying their best to make as many daylight flights because the airports in Borongan, Guiuan, and Catarman have no runway lights.

Cabalquinto said there were 68,100 food packs that were still on standby at the airbase as of 3 p.m.

No used clothing

Lucero said additional C-130 planes will be used to hit their target of 50,000 food packs delivered daily to Eastern Visayas.

Aside from the C-130 planes, one ship from the Philippine Navy and one from the Philippine Coast Guard are also on standby to transport 3,000 tons of food packs to eastern Samar.

As of 6 a.m yesterday, there were 400 volunteers at Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) and at the Petroni Warehouse in Mandaue City.

They will also establish a third repacking center at the old Sacred Heart School for boys.

The DSWD won’t accept donations for used clothing, Lucero said.

Lapinid said they received commitment of support from the the US military as well as the armed forces of Great Britain, Australia, Japan, Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia, and South Korea.