165 PINOYS FOUND SAFE IN
HAITI, NAMES LISTED HERE
[PHOTO
AT LEFT -
Photo provided by the Philippine National Police shows Chief Inspector
Angelie Cablinan, a member of the United Nations peacekeeping force and a
registered nurse, administering first aid to victims of the earthquake in
Haiti.]
PORT-AU-PRINCE, (AP) JANUARY 19, 2010 (STAR) Filipinos and other foreigners in various sections of Port-au-Prince, Haiti have been reached by rescue and relief authorities, and given relief assistance, the Department of Foreign Affairs said last night, citing reports from the peacekeeping force.
In his latest situation report, 10th Philippine Contingent commander Lt. Col. Lope Dagoy said that an initial census of Filipinos in the Delmas district was conducted. Some 100 Filipinos were identified and found to be safe, including two nuns with the ICM Sisters of Haiti.
Delmas is a district in Ouest Department of Port-au-Prince, where a sizeable number of Filipinos reside. The list was drawn from three areas: Delmas 31, Delmas 41 and Delmas 56.
Last Saturday, community members were given rice, sugar, oatmeal and coffee. The relief team composed of UN peacekeepers was guided by Alan Martinez, treasurer of the Filipino community in Haiti.
The team was also able to reach Friday afternoon the group of Fely Tan (Chan) and Henry Reobuya, who earlier requested assistance due to peace and order concerns in their area.
Philippine Honorary Consul in Haiti Fitzgerald Brandt is helping coordinate efforts in responding to the needs of community members.
Meanwhile, efforts are ongoing to rescue Grace Fabian and Geraldine Lalican, who remain trapped under the rubble of the Caribbean Supermarket in Port-au-Prince.
A 40-person rescue team from the United States is at the collapsed four-story Caribbean Market and is helping in search and rescue efforts.
The Philippine Peacekeeping Contingent requested the US military attaché’s office in Haiti to send the team.
The leader of the rescue team informed the Philippine contingent that they heard tapping and other signs of life beneath the rubble.
Eighteen bodies have been retrieved from the collapsed headquarters of the Mission des Nations Unies pour la Stabilisation en Haiti (MINUSTAH),
including the remains of Mission Head Hedi Annabi, his deputy Luis Carlos, and Chinese Ambassador to Haiti Shulin Wang.
Extensive efforts to rescue other officials, personnel and affiliated individuals who are still unaccounted, including Filipino UN peacekeepers Sergeants Eustacio Bermudez, Pearly Panangui and Janice Arocena and Filipino UN civilian staff member Jerome Yap, continue.
The Filipino community members in the Delmar district who were found to be in good health and safe condtion are:
1. MARIFLOR TUIBEO
2. NELSON LARDIZABAL
3. JOCELYN ORTIZ
4. PAUL WILLIAM USANA
5. RAMIL MACALINO
6. MELANIE M VILLAMIN
7. FRANK REPIZO
8. MARIA LUCIA REPIZO
9. KELLY MAY REPIZO
10. KYLE KENNETTE REPIZO
11. BRENDA TAMBO
12. DENNIS TAPAT
13. JONATHAN VILLA
14. LELAINE M VILLA
15. JONNA LEIGH VILLA
16. JOHN LLOYO VILLA
17. MORETO CASUYON
18. ADELINA MANALANSANG
19. BERWYN MANALANSANG
20. DANICA MANALANSANG
21. WENDYL MANALANSANG
22. ELINA A FELIPE
23. JOHNNY J CABE
24. GIL MERU
25. PATRICK GECANGAO
26. JOEL BRISTOL
27. DOMINADOR TIRU
28. NELSON BLANCO
29. ZOSIMO MELO
30. ANDY FRIAS
31. ALBINO VILLALBA
32. JOSELITO MANIULIT
33. DANTE REBANAL
34. ARNEL CARIAGA
35. RUBEN MARTINEZ
36. VENER MANING
37. ROBERTO CUNANAN
38. ARNEL BARRERA
39. CHRISTIAN DE ROXAS
40. RICKSON DAPASIN
41. FREDDIE DE ROXAS
42. SONNY MANING
43. SANDY MANING
44. RONIL MANING
45. RENATO PERA
46. RENE JORDAN
47. REY JORDAN
48. JOSEPH ALAMA
49. ZARINA FLOR
50. MOISES
51. ANGELITA AGUINALDO
52. RYZA BAGADIONG
53. JOAN SESPENE
54. CORAZON OBNIAL
55. RENATO BAGADIONG
56. RENELYN DE VERA
57. FERDINAND DE VERA
58. RIZALINO RAMIREZ
59. ALLZANA RAMIREZ
60. LOURDES CABALHIN
61. MANOLITO CABALHIN
62. DENNIS CABALHIN
63. AURORA AGUINALDO MEHLBAUM
64. ELENITA GRANADA
65. MA SANRIO GRANADA
66. JULIANE DEL ROSARIO
67. JOAQUIN TENA
68. OSCAR MENDOZA
69. MARY GRACE JOY GENARO
70. RICHARD PASAHOL
71. ISRAEL PASAHOL
72. LILIBETH MENDOZA
73. PRICILLA AGUINALDO
74. LEAH TABIGAY
75. ROSALYN FABIAN
76. SHERWIN MAGNO
77. FE LABALANDO
78. REMY VILLERO
79. ARIES MENDOZA
80. AGRIPINO CORNEJO
81. JOVEN CRUZ
82. BOY DURAN
83. PHILIP BENITEZ
84. MARICEL BENITEZ
85. JETRO BENITEZ
86. JANA BENITEZ
87. LILY SONICO
88. AURORA FERNANDEZ
89. FRANKIE BAGADIONG
90. DOLOR BAGADIONG
91. VAL BAGADIONG
92. ARIEL BAGADIONG
93. SHIELA DUBIOS
94. HENRY REOBUYA
95. LUCY TRINIDAD
96. FELY TAN
97. JUN BACURIN
98. DONNA BACURIN
99. SISTER HERMIE
100. SISTER INDEN
Hunger, hope, thirst and frenzy grip Haiti
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Precious water, food and early glimmers of hope began reaching parched and hungry earthquake survivors Saturday on the streets of this shattered city, where despair at times turned into a frenzy among the ruins.
“People are so desperate for food that they are going crazy,” said accountant Henry Ounche, in a crowd of hundreds who fought one another as US military helicopters clattered overhead carrying aid.
When other Navy choppers dropped rations and Gatorade into a soccer stadium thronged with refugees, 200 youths began brawling, throwing stones, to get at the supplies.
Across the hilly, steamy city, where people choked on the stench of death, hope faded by the hour for finding many more victims alive in the rubble, four days after Tuesday’s catastrophic earthquake.
Still, here and there, the murmur of buried victims spurred rescue crews on, even as aftershocks threatened to finish off crumbling buildings.
“No one’s alive in there,” a woman sobbed outside the wrecked Montana Hotel. But hope wouldn’t die. “We can hear a survivor,” search crew chief Alexander Luque of Namibia later reported. His men dug on.
Elsewhere, an American team pulled a woman alive from a collapsed university building where she had been trapped for 97 hours. Another crew got water to three survivors whose shouts could be heard deep in the ruins of a multistory supermarket that pancaked on top of them.
Nobody knew how many were dead. Haiti’s government alone has already recovered 20,000 bodies - not counting those recovered by independent agencies or relatives themselves, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told The Associated Press.
In a fresh estimate, the Pan American Health Organization said 50,000 to 100,000 people perished in the quake but Bellerive said 100,000 would “seem to be the minimum.”
Truckloads of corpses were being trundled to mass graves.
A UN humanitarian spokeswoman declared the quake the worst disaster the international organization has ever faced, since so much government and UN capacity in the country was demolished. In that way, Elisabeth Byrs said in Geneva, it’s worse than the cataclysmic Asian tsunami of 2004: “Everything is damaged.”
Also Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton flew to Port-au-Prince to pledge more American assistance and said the US would be “as responsive as we need to be.”
President Obama met with former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and urged Americans to donate to Haiti relief efforts.
As the day wore on, search teams recovered the body of Tunisian diplomat Hedi Annabi, the United Nations chief of mission in Haiti, and other top UN officials who were killed when their headquarters collapsed. – Rainier Allan Ronda, AP
Hope dims for 6 Pinoys in Haiti; 65 More Pinoys confirmed
alive
By Jaime Laude (The Philippine Star) Updated January 19, 2010 12:00
AM
MANILA,Philippines - For the seventh day yesterday, six Filipinos remained trapped underneath the rubble of two buildings in earthquake-devastated Haiti, military reports said.
Yesterday, 21 bodies were recovered from the ruins of the Christopher Hotel that served as the headquarters of the United Nations peacekeeping force in the Caribbean country.
The other day, Danish peacekeeper Jens Cristensen was pulled out alive from the leveled building, giving rescuers hope that there are more survivors underneath the rubble.
Cristensen was among the 100 UN peacekeeping staff working at the hotel when a magnitude 7 earthquake rocked Haiti on Tuesday.
In his report to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine contingent to Haiti commander Lt. Col. Lope Dagoy said Cristensen sustained bruises in the body and was already very weak when recovered by the rescue team.
Quoting Dagoy’s report, AFP spokesperson Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner said search and rescue operations continue.
“Because of this rescue (Cristensen), we were given hope that Filipino peacekeepers trapped in the Christopher Hotel are still alive. As of now, rescue operations for all six Filipinos trapped in various building in Haiti continue,” Brawner said in Filipino.
Still trapped under the Christopher Hotel are Filipino peacekeepers Navy Data Processing-3 Perlie Panagui, Air Force Sgt. Janice Arocena, and Army Sgt. Eustaquio Bermudez.
Also trapped in the building is UN Filipino staff Jerome Yap.
Two Filipina workers, meanwhile, are believed buried under the collapsed Caribbean Supermarket.
Rescuers are still searching for Grace Fabian and Geraldine Lalican.
“We want to tell the families and friends of the trapped Filipinos in Haiti that the Philippine contingent is doing all it can to rescue them,” Brawner said.
Meanwhile, injured Filipino peacekeeper Staff Sergeant Bonifacio Paet is now recovering in the Philippine Contingent Clinic after he was transferred from the Argentine Hospital.
65 more Filipinos confirmed alive
Meanwhile, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said that 65 more Filipinos living in Haiti have been confirmed alive.
DFA said Filipino community leader Godofredo Edquiban has verified that three of those listed below are currently in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, while three are on vacation in the Philippines.
They are:
1. Paglomutan, Alvin
2. Protacio, Angelita
3. Perea, Anita
4. Edquiban, Annelli
5. Sastrillo, Antonio
6. Duran, Antonio
7. Edquiban, April Anne
8. Abenuman, Arcenito
9. Paglomutan, Caimile
10. Dublois, Candelaria
11. Protacio, Carmelito
12. Manalili, Cecille
13. Usana, Cheryl
14. Sason, Cholly
15. Lim, Consolacion
16. Bosi, Czar
17. Diamante, Edgar
18. Arbis, Edna
19. Manalili, Elenita
20. Guinchoma, Emelita
21. Lim, Fernando
22. Esquibe, Florentina
23. Paglomutan, Fred
24. Bolante, Gerry
25. Lalican, Gherwell
26. Villagracia, Gilberto
27. Edquiban, Godofredo III
28. Edquiban, Godofredo Jr.
29. Villena, Grace
30. Santos, Honey Cris
31. Unica, Jerome
32. Macario, Joel
33. Sason, Jose Leo
34. Dequito, Leslie
35. Lalican, Lowell
36. Piedad, Luisa
37. Manalo, Marilou
38. Garcia, Marites
39. Caponpon, Michael
40. Malbacias, Michael
41. Santos, Mikaela
42. Bautista, Morris Albert
43. Segubre, Nestor
44. Decano, Nilo
45. Agda, Orlando
46. Sedano, Oscar
47. Villagracia, Perlita
48. Villena, Rafael
49. Consul, Roldan
50. Santos, Rosario
51. Paglomutan, Rosemarie
52. Malbacias, Samantha Louis
53. Unica, Sharon Joy
54. Malbacias, Sheryl
55. Vidallo, Teody
56. Macario, Teresa
57. Duran, Tony Rose
58. Elorde, Tristan
59. Maning, Vener
60. Duran, Vicente
61. Lalican, Welldine
62. Decembre, Leila
63. Caluya, Teresita
64. Baylon, Ingracia
65. Lizardo, Roland Richard
The Philippine Peacekeeping Contingent earlier confirmed that 100 Filipinos in the Delmas district are safe.
RP, foreign relief teams arrive in Port-au-Prince
Citing the report of the Philippine Contingent in Haiti, the DFA reported that the relief team from the Philippine embassy in Cuba assembled by Ambassador Macarthur Corsino was scheduled to arrive in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince yesterday.
The relief team was instructed to provide immediate relief to distressed Filipinos and to formulate a repatriation plan for Filipinos who would want to go home.
The Manila-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said a significant amount of emergency aid has arrived in Port-au-Prince but volunteers are having difficulty reaching survivors because infrastructure damage is widespread and immense.
Quoting reports from their Haitian counterparts, Anastasia Isyuk of Manila-ICRC said very few communities were spared from the quake.
“Very few neighborhoods have been spared, while local infrastructure and services have been wiped out. The ICRC has built latrines for 1,000 people and supplied medical kits for 2,000 patients to two hospitals. Seven truckloads of ICRC medical supplies should arrive in the capital on Sunday evening,” she said.
Manila-IRC said makeshift camps have sprung up in every neighborhood in Port-au-Prince.
There is also limited access to toilets, water, food, and medical care. Functioning medical facilities in the city lack staff and supplies.
Food prices have also skyrocketed in the city following the disaster.
Earthquake plan
Following the destruction in Haiti, Albay Gov. Joey Salceda yesterday pushed for the creation of a comprehensive national earthquake plan.
“We should have a comprehensive earthquake plan… we lack social preparation, we only have symbolic rehearsals,” Salceda told reporters after attending a media forum at the Manila Hotel.
He said the program must include geohazard mapping, land use plan, social preparation, and structural inspection.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) earlier said it would complete the country’s geohazard mapping this year.
DENR Acting Secretary Eleazar Quinto said 1,618 municipalities nationwide had been mapped as of last month.
Salceda said he recently formed the “Task Force Eq” in Albay as part of the province’s disaster mitigation program.
He said the provincial government has required building owners in Albay to inspect their own buildings and determine structural problems.
Meanwhile, a group of scientists called the Alyansa ng mga Grupong Haligi ng Agham at Teknolohiya para sa Mamamayan (AGHAM) urged the government to intensify its public awareness campaign about natural disasters such as earthquakes.
Agham president Angelo Palmones said the group created an earthquake simulator in 2001 to educate the public about earthquakes.
“The simulator, which was developed with technical support from the Metals Industry Research and Development Center (MIRDC-DOST), shows ground motion corresponding to earthquake intensity,” Palmones explained.
He said some local government officials have committed to reproduce the device for public education.
The Philippines lies on the so-called “Pacific Ring of Fire,” an area where earthquakes and volcanic eruptions frequently occur.
The last major earthquake to hit the Philippines was on July 16, 1990, when a magnitude 7.7 quake hit Baguio City and Nueva Ecija, killing 1,000 people. - with Pia Lee-Brago, Helen Flores
Many countries report missing and dead in Haiti (philstar.com) Updated January 18, 2010 05:00 AM
(AP) - A glance at countries reporting dead and missing in Haiti:
_Antigua and Barbuda: 2 missing.
_Austria: 1 dead.
_Belgium: 3 missing.
_Brazil: 15 dead and five missing. _Britain: 1 dead.
_Canada: 8 dead, 1,115 unaccounted for.
_Chile: 4 missing.
_Costa Rica: 2 missing.
_Denmark: 1 UN worker missing.
_Dominican Republic: 6 dead.
_El Salvador: 1 missing
_France: 12 dead, government fears 20-30 may have died.
_Germany: 1 dead, about 30 missing.
_Italy: 1 dead, 3 feared dead; 10 others unaccounted for.
_Mexico: 1 dead, 40 of the 80 Mexicans living in Haiti located.
_Netherlands: 3 injured, including child; 18 missing.
_Peru: 1 dead.
_Poland: 4 missing.
_Spain: 3 dead, 23 unaccounted for.
_Tunisia: at least 1 dead (head of UN mission Hedi Annabi)
_United States: 16 dead, 1 a US government employee of whom 2 still missing. Some 45,000 Americans are in the country.
_Uruguay: 3 missing.
_United Nations: 37 UN personnel confirmed dead, nearly 330 missing. Some personnel may also be included in national counts.