President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday alloted P40 million for the rehabilitation of a hospital in Batanes that was damaged by the twin earthquakes that killed eight people and affected thousands of people in the province Saturday morning.
Duterte attended a situation briefing with government authorities at Basco airport and asked local officials to reconstruct the Itbayat District Hospital, which was damaged by the quakes.
“I’ll give you the P40 million. I hope you put it to good use,” he said.
Duterte also conducted an aerial inspection with Batanes Governor Marilou Cayco to assess the extent of the damage, as shown in photos sent to Palace reporters by Senator Christopher Go, former presidential aide.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said the Chief Executive has also ordered the concerned agencies to render immediate assistance to those who were affected.
Eight people have died and more than 100 were injured after the quakes of 5.4 and 5.9 magnitude jolted the province on Saturday. One person remained missing as of Sunday morning.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said all injured persons were taken to Itbayat District Hospital for treatment.
The hosital suffered minimal cracks, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said, but “it was still fully functional” and would be able to attend to the needs of the injured.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said government health assets in Batanes have already been mobilized and hospitals in nearby provinces in Region II are prepared to help if needed.
Malacañang has offered its condolences to the families of those who lost their loved ones during the earthquakes that hit the province.
“We send our sincerest prayers for the fast and speedy recovery of those who were injured,” Panelo said.
The twin quakes have affected 911 families or about 2,963 persons residing in five barangays in Itbayat town, the NDRRMC said.
They were relocated to the Itbayat Public Market, NDRRMC executive director Ricardo Jalad said.
A total of 15 houses, two schools, and two health facilities were damaged in the earthquakes.
Meanwhile, the Department of Social Welfare and Development announced that more than P2 million worth of relief stockpiles and funds can be used.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines has also deployed two search-and-rescue and one medical team through a medium transport aircraft in Itbayat.
Search-and-rescue teams of the 525th Engineering Combat Battalion were also on stand-by for possible deployment.
Malacañang said President Duterte was satisfied with the government’s action on the twin earthquakes.
“We have agencies which are prepared whenever there is a calamity,” Panelo said.
“There will be a rehabilitation just like on other parts of the country affected by earthquakes or other calamities,” Panelo said.
Nograles said due to bad weather, government is working “double time” to make sure that it can immediately provide help to those who are affected by the quake.
Food packs that are prepositioned in the capital town of Basco are now en route to Itbayat town, which was hardest hit by the 5.9 magnitude quake that shook the tiny island province, Nograles said.
However, he said Batanes’s rocky coastal waters which are notorious because of high and dangerous waves, have made it very difficult to provide relief through seagoing vessels.
Except for the total power shutdown, Nograles said Itbayat remains fairly accessible for relief operations for the 11 evacuation centers that were set up for the residents.
Itbayat is the country’s northernmost municipality, with a total population of less than 3,000.
In a radio interview, the director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said houses in Batanes, mostly built of limestone during the Spanish colonial times, were particularly susceptible to damage from earthquakes.
He said the houses, which did not use any steel reinforcement, grew brittle with time.
Batanes Gov. Marilou Cayco said she was considering declaring a state of calamity in the province.
“We’ll see what the extent of the damage is, then we’ll sit down and see whether we’ll declare a state of calamity,” she said in Filipino in an interview on the ANC cable news channel. — With PNA
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