72 METRO BARANGAYS STILL UNDERWATER / P10-B WORTH MARIKINA LOSS
MANILA, OCTOBER 9, 2009, (STAR) Seventy-two barangays in Metro Manila are still flooded and have yet to start their clearing operations in the wake of typhoon Ondoy, the Department of Interior and Local Government reported yesterday.Undersecretary Eduardo Soliman, concurrent DILG-NCR director said of the 72 still-flooded Metro Manila barangays, 17 are in Pasig City, 13 in Marikina City, 11 in San Juan City, 26 in Taguig City and five in Pateros.
“I urge all the concerned sectors of society to help in the clean up efforts of their respective barangays so that we can all rise above this recent calamity and move forward,” Soliman said.
Earlier, DILG Acting Secretary Melchor Rosales issued a directive to provincial governors, city and municipal mayors of Region IV-A and the National Capital Region to collect garbage and to clean up their respective localities within 72 hours.
DILG Secretary Ronaldo Puno is on vacation in the United States.
In his directive, Rosales said that in the event of the inability of the current garbage collectors to effect the expeditious and effective collection of garbage, the concerned LGU is allowed under the law to contract other providers under RA 9184 (Government Procurement Reform Act).
Moreover, a total of 211 barangays or 62 percent of the 342 Metro Manila barangays that were affected by Ondoy have already finished their respective clean up operations, the DILG said.
Rosales said among those already cleared of debris as of Oct. 5 are the 32 barangays in Valenzuela City, nine barangays in Pasay City, 11 in Makati City, 15 in Parañaque City, 41 in Manila, 43 in Caloocan and eight in Las Piñas City. – Mike Frialde
P10 billion worth of Marikina property lost to 'Ondoy' By Non Alquitran (The Philippine Star) Updated October 08, 2009 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - An estimated P10 billion worth of property was lost when typhoon “Ondoy” ravaged Marikina City on Sept. 26, city Mayor Maria Lourdes Fernando said yesterday.
Fernando said initial estimates showed that the Amang Rodriguez Medical Center lost P500 million in equipments, the various schools, P100 million and the City Hall also in millions of pesos of equipment. “In the City Hall alone, our computers and other facilities are badly damaged. We are still waiting for the damage report on the private sector but our estimate showed losses in P10 billion,” said the mayor.
The city government is presently in the thick of its clearing operations, rehabilitation and repair efforts as Fernando appealed to Marikeños to do their share “so our city known for its cleanliness would be back to its former self as soon as possible.”
“We should not rely too much on the government but do our share as we are doing our best to restore normalcy in the city the soonest possible time,” Fernando said during a brief press conference at the Shoe Hall of the City Hall compound. “We ask for the cooperation of every citizen for us to be able to clean up the city.”
Fernando appealed to residents to remove stalled vehicles in the middle of the streets for government workers to move freely from one place to another to remove debris like piles of garbage. According to Fernando, there’s nobody to blame for the tragedy which is unprecedented in the city’s history.
No need for finger-pointing
“There’s no need for finger-pointing as the calamity like this, landslides and earthquakes cannot be predicted,” she said, noting that the loss of lives could be larger had her husband and Chairman Bayani Fernando, of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, did not relocate some 10,000 residents in riverbanks during his term as the city mayor. She recalled that the city government’s rescue teams using rubber boats and bancas were actively rescuing residents at the height of typhoon Ondoy.
However, the rescue teams have their hands full as more than 2,000 residents were already in their rooftop, pleading that they be rescued first.
She explained that the city’s drainage system was working at the height of the typhoon. But the water level at the Marikina River rose to 23 meters or equivalent to an eight-story building high so the low-lying areas were submerged by floodwaters. The normal water level at the Marikina River was pegged at 14 meters.
“The water from the mountains and the river came together and our drainage system could not accommodate them anymore, so the floodings,” she said.
Classes resume
Classes resumed in schools in Marikina City Monday, except in several areas which continue hosting evacuees. Fernando said the school principals have different timetables for the return of normalcy in their respective schools.
She called on residents to bring out their garbage for collection by dumptrucks but she appealed to them not to place them in the middle of the streets so as not to obstruct ongoing clean up and rehabilitation efforts.
A total of 67 people were killed on the onslaught of Ondoy with 33 of them residents of Marikina City.
Imelda shoe collection survives RP flood - report (The Philippine Star) Updated October 09, 2009 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - A museum guard’s quick thinking saved part of former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos’s infamous shoe collection when huge floods devastated the nation’s capital, a report said Thursday.
The 200-pair display was moved upstairs just before flood waters swamped the ground floor of the Marikina Shoe Museum on the eastern outskirts of the capital, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported, citing the city mayor.
“A guard was able to take most of the pairs to the second floor. We will account for them in due time, but our priority right now is still the affected families,” it quoted city mayor Marides Fernando as saying in an interview.
Marikina, the Philippines’ shoe production capital, was among the hardest hit areas when Tropical Storm Ketsana dumped record rains in and around Manila on Sept. 26, killing nearly 300 people.
Marcos’s shoe collection has become one of the most notorious symbols of the life of luxury and excess she enjoyed during the 20-year reign of her dictator husband, Ferdinand Marcos.
About 3,000 pairs of shoes were discovered in her quarters at the Malacanang presidential palace after she and her husband fled to US exile amid a bloodless “people power” revolt that ended Marcos rule in 1986.
The former first lady, who returned to the Philippines shortly after her husband died in Hawaii in 1991, has long maintained that she collected so many shoes partly to promote the Marikina industry.
The Marikina museum showcases the Marcos collection and an assortment of other footwear worn by former Philippine presidents, senators, ambassadors, and Marikina mayors.
City mayor Fernando could not be reached for comment on Thursday. The telephones at the museum, which opened in 2001, were not working.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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