8 dead in rice looting in typhoon-hit Leyte Wednesday, November 13, 2013 TACLOBAN CITY (2nd Update, 3:20 p.m.) -- An official said eight people were crushed to death when thousands of typhoon survivors stormed a government rice warehouse in the typhoon-ravaged central Philippines. National Food Authority (NFA) spokesman Rex Estoperez said Wednesday that police and soldiers were helpless when the looting took place in Leytes Alangalang municipality on Tuesday. He said the eight were crushed when a wall collapsed. The looters carted away more than 100,000 sacks of rice. Related articles Metro Manila cities to adopt typhoon-hit areas in Visayas DFA: Foreign aid now at P3.8B Immigration relaxes rules for foreign aid teams Death toll from Yolanda now at 2,275 Aquino orders early release of year-end bonuses to state employees Estoperez said there are other warehouses in the region but refused to say where they are for security reasons. With the incident, a women’s rights advocacy group protested in front of the NFA office in Quezon City Wednesday to demand fast distribution of free rice to the typhoon victims. “Habang milyun-milyong sako ng bigas ang nasa mga imbakan ng NFA, DA (Department of Agriculture) at maging ng Bureau of Customs, desperado na sa pagkain at tulong ang mga kababayan natin,” said Joms Salvador, the secretary general of Gabriela. But an NFA official said they have already distributed three million sacks of rice to the victims of the killer typhoon. “Hindi kasi naming pwedeng ibigay nang libre hangga’t walang utos sa taas. Kasi siyempre kami naman ang hahanap. Nasa discretion na iyon ng DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development). Basta ang arrangement namin ididistribute na ‘yung mga bigas na nasa warehouse sa region 7 and 8 para sa mga biktima ng bagyo,” Estoperez said. He said the typhoon victims should establish discipline in asking for their rice supply. Since the storm, people have broken into homes, malls and garages, where they have stripped the shelves of food, water and other goods. Authorities have struggled to stop the looting, but relief operations were only starting to pick up pace on Wednesday, with two more airports in the region reopening, allowing for more aid flights. Minimal food and water was also reaching people in the devastated city of Tacloban, on Leyte island, which bore the brunt of the storm, and outlying regions due to a lack of trucks and blocked roads. Theres a bit of a logjam to be absolutely honest getting stuff in here, said Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. There have also been unconfirmed reports of armed gangs involved in some instances. Youve had quite a lot of security coming in over the last couple of days, less so other things. So then it gets here and then were going to have a real challenge with logistics in terms of getting things out of here, into town, out of town, into the other areas, he said from the airport in Tacloban. The reason for that essentially is that there are no trucks, the roads are all closed. Police, though, were working to keep order across the ravaged wasteland. An 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew was in place. We have restored order, said Carmelo Espina Valmoria, director of the Philippine National Police special action force. There has been looting for the last three days, (but) the situation has stabilized. US Brigadier General Paul Kennedy said that later Wednesday, his troops would install equipment at Tacloban airport to allow planes to land at night. You are not just going to see Marines and a few planes and some helicopters, Kennedy said. You will see the entire Pacific Command respond to this crisis. A Norwegian ship carrying supplies left from Manila, while an Australian air force transport plane took off from Canberra carrying a medical team. British and American navy vessels are also en route to the region. At the damaged airport in Tacloban, makeshift clinics have been set up and thousands of people were looking for a flight out. A doctor said supplies of antibiotics and anesthetics arrived Tuesday for the first time. Until then, patients had to endure the pain, said Dr. Victoriano Sambale. At least 580,000 people have been displaced by the disaster. In some places, tsunami-like storm surges swept up to one-kilometer (mile) inland, causing more destruction and loss of life. Most of the death and destruction appears concentrated on the islands of Samar and Leyte. The damaged infrastructure and bad communications links made a conclusive death toll difficult to estimate. The official toll from a national disaster agency rose to 1,883 on Tuesday. President Benigno Aquino III told CNN in a televised interview that the toll could be closer to 2,000 or 2,500, lower than an earlier estimate from two officials on the ground who said they feared as many as 10,000 might be dead. There is a huge amount that we need to do. We have not been able to get into the remote communities, UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said in Manila, launching an appeal for $301 million to help the more than 11 million people estimated to be affected by the storm. Even in Tacloban, because of the debris and the difficulties with logistics and so on, we have not been able to get in the level of supply that we would want to. We are going to do as much as we can to bring in more, she said. Her office said she planned to visit the city. (AP/With Third Anne Peralta/Sunnex)
Posted on: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 12:10:41 +0000