Sunday, December 05, 2004

Philippines asks foreign governments to help rebuild typhoon-ravaged provinces

REAL, Philippines (AP) - Philippine officials sought international help Sunday to rebuild villages devastated by back-to-back storms that left more than 1,000 people either dead or missing and devastated mostly poor northern agricultural regions.

The storm and typhoon that struck late Monday and Thursday left 640 people dead and nearly 400 others missing and set off flash floods and landslides that destroyed hundreds of houses, farms, roads and bridges. Damaged infrastructure has hampered rescue efforts and the flow of relief goods to far-flung villages, officials said.

Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman appealed to foreign governments for help.

"The appeal we're now making is in rehabilitation,'' Soliman said. "That really means rebuilding water systems, toilets, livelihood in agriculture for people whose farmlands were buried in mud.''

The United States, Japan, the European Union and the International Red Cross were among the first to respond with financial help, transport and relief goods.

U.S. Ambassador Francis Ricciardone, who flew by helicopter Sunday to villages in the hard-hit eastern province of Quezon, said roads and bridges needed to be repaired immediately to allow relief goods to flow to isolated areas.

"The devastation was worse than I had imagined,'' Ricciardone said. "It was quite distressing, logs everywhere, mud everywhere, roads were cut off in many places and bridges were down.''

Washington offered to dispatch troops to undertake humanitarian help, including at least one helicopter for transport and a team of U.S. military damage assessment experts. It also donated US$200,000 (euro150,000), 500 body bags and plastic shelter materials to the Philippine Red Cross, he said.

Most of the destruction was wrought by a tropical storm that blew through northeastern provinces late Monday, killing at least 527 people, military Chief of Staff Gen. Efren Abu said.

Typhoon Nanmadol then struck the same region late Thursday, leaving 13 dead and 19 missing, according to the Office of Civil Defense.

Another 100 people were found dead in Dumingan, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Manila, Maj. Gen. Romeo Tolentino told ABS-CBN TV. It was unclear whether they died in Monday's storm or the typhoon.

Deforestation has stripped hillsides of vegetation that could have held mud and other debris in place during last week's tropical storm and typhoon, and many believe years of illegal logging set off the landslides.

Reinforcing that view, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Saturday suspended all logging and said illegal loggers would be prosecuted like terrorists, kidnappers, drug traffickers and other hardened criminals. She called for unity amid the disaster.

"I'm canceling all (logging) permits here and suspending issuance of all others,'' she said on a visit to the hard-hit coastal town of Real in Quezon province.

It wasn't clear how long the moratorium would last or whether it would be enforced nationwide.

Arroyo also urged Congress to stiffen penalties against illegal loggers "and their cohorts, including erring government officials and law enforcers who are abetting the destruction of our forest lands.''

"We are determined to make those responsible for widespread death and destruction to pay the price for their misdeeds,'' she said.

The Philippines is hit by about 20 storms and typhoons a year. A typhoon and another storm the previous week killed at least 87 people and left 80 others missing in the east.

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