TYPHOON 'LUPIT' NEARS RP / WORLD FOOD DAY:
'NO FOOD DAY' IN RP
MANILA, OCTOBER 17, 2009
(STAR) Helen Flores - The weather bureau reported yesterday that a
tropical storm with the international name “Lupit” was expected to enter the
Philippine area of responsibility last night, threatening to bring more rains
over some parts of the country.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said as of 11 a.m. yesterday, Lupit was spotted at 1,300 kilometers east of the Bicol Region with maximum sustained winds of 95 kilometers per hour near the center and gustiness of up to 120 kph.
Pagasa deputy administrator Nathaniel Cruz said the storm would move west northwest at 32 kph.
Lupit was expected to track the general direction of Central and Northern Luzon towards Taiwan area, based on Pagasa’s latest forecast.
Once it enters Philippine territory, Lupit will be given the local name “Ramil.”
Cruz said the storm would not immediately have any direct effect on any part of the country.
“It will take at least two to three days before it will affect the country,” Cruz said in a radio interview.
Cruz said the storm could still intensify before entering the country.
Pagasa administrator Prisco Nilo, however, said the storm has a slim chance of making landfall over central Philippines.
Meanwhile, Pagasa said the intertropical convergence zone would bring mostly cloudy skies with scattered rain showers and thunderstorms over Southern Luzon and Visayas in the next 24 hours.
“Southern Luzon and Visayas would experience mostly cloudy skies with scattered rainshowers and thunderstorms. The rest of the country will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms,” Pagasa said.
Pagasa said the coastal waters throughout the archipelago would be moderate to occasionally rough.
Palace orders NDCC to prepare
Malacañang has assured the public that all necessary precautions and preparations for the entry of tropical storm Lupit into the country have been undertaken by the concerned government agencies.
Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said President Arroyo has ordered the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) to pre-position the equipment needed for rescue operations as well as relief goods to the areas that the storm is expected to hit.
Remonde expressed confidence that the dam operators in the affected areas are now more prepared than ever to respond to the coming storm in light of the widespread criticisms they received regarding their operations when typhoon “Pepeng” hit Northern Luzon two weeks ago.
“The dam operators have already learned from what happened. They will no longer wait for the arrival of the storm. They are releasing water already,” Remonde said.
Residents and local government officials of Pangasinan have accused the operators of the San Roque Dam of opening up the floodgates too late at the height of Pepeng.
The rush of floodwaters from the dam submerged most of the province and left a lot of the residents unprepared because they were allegedly not given ample warning to evacuate.
The Senate looked into the operations of the dams during its probe into the effects of tropical storm “Ondoy” and Pepeng and pushed for an amendment of the protocol used during storms in order to better prepare the surrounding communities for possible floods.
Remonde said that the probe has become very instructive for the dam operators as well as the government.
He said that the Palace is monitoring the Senate probe and would gather inputs, particularly for its own investigation into the disaster in Pangasinan.
“Defense Secretary (Gilberto) Teodoro, the chairperson of the NDCC, intimated to me yesterday that he is also really going after those people who will be found responsible for negligence of their duties in the management of these areas,” Remonde said.
“I think the Senate is just performing one of its functions and I would like to view what the Senate is doing as their own contribution, as a manifestation of their serious concerns that would be able to help address the problem,” he added. – With Marvin Sy
World Food Day is 'no food day' for more than one billion of world's hungry (The Philippine Star) Updated October 17, 2009 12:00 AM
[PHOTO
AT LEFT - Militant groups stage a protest rally in front of the Department of
Agriculture in Quezon City yesterday to seek additional support for farmers.
BOY SANTOS]
MANILA, Philippines - Marking World Food Day yesterday, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) called on the world to remember the more than one billion urgently hungry people with inadequate access to food.
“World Food Day is actually ‘No Food Day’ for almost one out of every six people around the world this year,” WFP executive director Josette Sheeran said yesterday in Rome. “Our challenge is to turn ‘No Food Day’ back into ‘World Food Day’ for the hundreds of millions without food on their table tonight.”
In the Philippines, 17.5 percent or an estimated 3.2 million families have experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months, according to the most recent Social Weather Stations survey.
Since its return to the Philippines in 2006, WFP has been supporting the national efforts to address hunger by assisting vulnerable people in the conflict-affected areas of Mindanao where people are particularly food insecure. The organization has established a number of programs, including school meals, food-for-work and food-for training activities, maternal and child nutrition and food assistance to internally displaced people (IDPs).
At the same time, WFP supports national disaster response efforts, as demonstrated by ongoing emergency operations to assist the victims of tropical storms in Metro Manila and Luzon.
Marking World Food Day, WFP has launched a series of activities aimed at highlighting the critical importance of its partnerships with government and the private sector in the battle against hunger in conflict-affected areas of Mindanao.
In keeping with the theme of this year’s World Food Day – Achieving Food Security in Times of Crisis – WFP’s ceremonies focused on the communal garden that the organization has developed in Lanao del Norte to assist returning families originally displaced by the Mindanao conflict in August 2008.
A youth forum on hunger mitigation and food insecurity was conducted by Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT), with some 200 students from Iligan City participating.
“WFP needs more partners to meet our commitment to fight hunger at these critical times,” said WFP Philippine country director Stephen Anderson. “The needs are rising as the available funding is falling, so we have to reach out to as many people as possible.”
“In Mindanao,” he continued, “we are working closely with the government and our private sector partners to ensure that the food and nutrition needs of beneficiaries in the conflict-affected areas are fully supported. We don’t want anyone to go hungry, neither the victims of conflict in Mindanao, nor the victims of nature’s fury in Metro Manila and Luzon.”
WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. In 2009, WFP aims to feed 108 million people in 74 countries.
Last year, governments responded with record donations to WFP, contributing more than $5 at a time when high global food prices were spreading misery and threatening instability as hungry communities took to the streets in protest.
This year, as the number of hungry people passes one billion for the first time in human history, support from key donors is vital. WFP reported that many of its traditional donors are striving to maintain the levels of funding they have committed to in the past, with some even exceeding the amounts they had given in previous years.
Sheeran added that for decades, WFP has been able to feed around ten percent of the world’s hungriest people, but this year, for the first time, the agency is unlikely to reach that target. As an agency that responds to emergency needs, WFP has also had to meet many unforeseen demands in 2009, such as the response to the recent floods in the Philippines.
Vegetable prices going down - DA By Marianne Go (The Philippine Star) Updated October 17, 2009 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - Retail prices of vegetables and other basic food items have reportedly started going down in Metro Manila, according to the Department of Agriculture (DA).
Although most retail prices have still to return to pre-storm levels, substantial price drops for vegetables have been monitored by the DA in several markets.
“Prices of cabbage scorpio, carrots, pechay Baguio and white potato went down by as much as P70 per kilo, while the price of chayote has dropped by as much as P30,” Agriculture Assistant Secretary Salvador Salacup said.
At one supermarket in Metro Manila, however, baby carrots sold at P169.95 a kilo while cabbage scorpio was tagged at P100 a kilo yesterday.
The DA has been sourcing goods from alternative sites, even as far as Mindanao. Deliveries from traditional sources in Northern Luzon that were isolated last week as a result of the typhoon-induced heavy flooding and landslides have also been restored..
According to Salacup, suppliers from Quezon, South Cotabato and General Santos have delivered over seven metric tons (MT) of assorted vegetables to Metro Manila outlets like the Oriental (Balintawak), Commonwealth and Mega Q-Mart markets in Quezon City.
Assorted vegetables have also been delivered to various Metro Manila markets from Nueva Vizcaya, Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, Batangas and Quezon.
Although average prices are still higher than the levels before the onslaught of tropical storm “Ondoy” or typhoon “Pepeng,” Salacup said there has been a significant drop in per-kilo rates, and the declining price trend is expected through the coming week as the DA, together with private suppliers from north to south, continue to augment the supply of basic foodstuff in the metropolis.
“Retail prices of highland vegetables such as carrots, cabbage rareball, cabbage scorpio, white potato, sayote and pechay Baguio continued to decline from previous levels,” Salacup said.
Anakciano Inc. started operating a DA-subsidized stall in Oriental Market last Thursday. It is selling pork kasim, pigue and pork chop at P150 per kilo, liempo at P155 a kilo and fully dressed chicken at P123 per kilo.
Negotiations with Cainta Public Market is ongoing for the delivery of five to 10 pork carcasses per day, while suppliers from Pangasinan are set to deliver bangus and tilapia to the same outlets at a rate of five to seven MT every three days, Salacup said.
Rombe Philippines is set to deliver fresh chilled pork cuts to the Barangay Bagsakans with estimated volume of two metric tons per week.
A two-ton refrigerated van in Commonwealth Market was installed as the depot for the pork.
Anakciano started delivery of fully dressed chicken to Barangay Bagsakans in Quezon City.
The Barangay Bagsakan in Barangay Pag-Asa serves as the depot for the 100-kilo requirement of the their three outlets in Quezon City (Pag-Asa, Magsaysay, UP). The volume is estimated to increase in the next days to cover chicken requirements of Barangay Bagsakans in other areas.
Such supplies are on top of the deliveries of highland vegetables to wet markets and bagsakan centers in Metro Manila following the limited reopening this week of the Naguilian and Kennon Roads and Marcos Highway.
Eighty-nine trucks coming from the La Trinidad Trading Post in Benguet have
already delivered almost 1,500 MT of vegetables. Thirty of those trucks unloaded
their goods in Metro Manila markets, while the other 59 trucks went to other
provinces, Salacup said.