PRESIDENT RODRIGO R. Duterte on Thursday assigned four Cabinet officials to Northern Luzon that are expected to be affected by super-typhoon Ompong.
In a command conference together with the full Cabinet on Thursday afternoon, Sept. 13, with the storm having entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR), Mr. Duterte ordered Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III, Transportation Secretary Arthur P. Tugade, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) Executive Director Ricardo B. Jalad, and Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs Francis N. Tolentino to go to areas in Northern Luzon where Ompong is headed before leaving PAR by Sunday at the latest.
“I would need a face there. Dapat may makitang mukha sila doon (There must be a face that people should see there),” the President said in a press conference after the command conference at the Operation Center of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) in Camp Aguinaldo.
Mr. Duterte appointed Mr. Tolentino his “conduit” for disaster response. The President made the on-the-spot assignments after asking the members of the NDRRMC if they are “in constant communication with each other.”
During the televised command conference, Mr. Duterte showed attentiveness and asked several questions to his Cabinet officials.
“I suggest [that] there [should be] one line for all government agencies,” the President said, adding: “Another for the military and the police” for central communications.
For his part, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel F. Piñol assured the President on the prices of rice. “We’re expecting stabilization of rice prices in the market within the next two to three weeks,” he said.
Mr. Duterte also said he would rather rely on radios and not on cellphones in times of disasters.
“The use of cellphones becomes inutile at some point,” he said.
EXPERIENCE OF YOLANDA
With alarms sounded and initial preparations having started as early as Sunday, authorities are hopeful of a zero casualty scenario as typhoon Mangkhut, with local name Ompong, sweeps through the Philippine’s northern area.
Spokesperson Edgar L. Posadas of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), in a press conference yesterday, said the country has learned from super typhoon Haiyan (local name: Yolanda) in 2013, the strongest to ever hit the country.
“Nag-improve tayo lahat (We all improved) after Yolanda, hoping and praying na zero casualty this time,” Mr. Posadas said.
Haiyan left more than 7,350 people dead or missing, mainly in the Eastern Visayas Region.
Typhoon Mangkhut, which has already blasted through the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam, is speeding across the Pacific with winds that can gust as high as 255 kilometers per hour.
Thousands began evacuating in seaside areas of the northern tip of the main Philippine island of Luzon, where the storm is expected to make landfall early Saturday.
“The pre-emptive evacuation is going on in our coastal municipalities, the villages that are prone to storm surge,” Cagayan province spokesperson Rogelio Sending told AFP. “We are going to evacuate more.”
Most local government units in the typhoon’s path have declared suspension of classes and work beginning Friday, Sept. 14, while corn and rice farmers rushed to harvest their crops a few days ahead of the schedule.
Officials of state weather bureau PAGASA have warned that Ompong will bring heavy rains, strong winds, and storm surges. — reports from Arjay L. Balinbinand AFP

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR