Aftershocks hamper
rescue efforts

Even Negrenses in this part of the Island remained in aftershock yesterday as reports from Negros Oriental showed that efforts by rescue and relief teams to dig out victims of the 6.9 intensity quake that rocked the island and other Visayas and Mindanao provinces.

We caught yesterday Guihulngan Mayor Reyes talking over the phone with an ANC reporter and telling him that he was tottering because he was experiencing another aftershock.

And, when the reporter asked him about what relief items had been given the trapped Guihulngan quake victims – Reyes blurted out – “Can’t you understand that we are now being buffeted by aftershocks? So, why ask such a question?”

That, to a large extent, made me aware of what the victims and government persons are undergoing in the quake-torn areas of La Libertad, Guihulngan, Jimalalud, Bindoy, which are undergoing travails of further jolts by the earth.

Later, I also caught on TV scenes of a rescue and digging out of bodies of victims buried by the rubble of buildings. One of he victims escorted out was that of a Chinaman owner of the building in Guihulngan. And there was the sight of several rescuers trying to remain on their feet after they were caught by a strong aftershock while conducting rescue effort.

The latest report said that some 53 persons were reported to have been the toll in the Oriental quake, although there has been no reported casualties in Negros Occidental. Thanks to God.

Of course, the government, both local and national, have been trained to repair damaged and several bridges of several towns of Oriental Negros. But the problem is the heavy equipment could hardly get through these destroyed sections of the national highway in Jimalalud, La Libertad and Guihulgan.

And there was the report over Aksyon Radyo that patients of the Guilhulngan Bill Villegas hospital were taken out to the open space in front of the establishment. The reason – because it was feared that the hospital could collapse on them.

As reported by a witnesses, the patients were left to their own devices in the open, some under the merciless light of the sun and of course, the rain, if that happened.

Worse, the witness reported lack of medicines and the insipidity of the local government authorities and DOH to provide them the medicines needed by the patients.

Neither could they be transported to hospitals outside of Guihulngan, although, by yesterday afternoon, it was expected that the local authorities and the military may have found a way to get them out of their predicament.

PHILVOCS, meanwhile, urged the public to remain vigilant on the possibility of more aftershocks. It reported having monitored a total of more than 1,005 quakes post the Monday 6.9 rickets scale quake that jolted even Bacolod City in Occidental Negros and Iloilo City.

The problem with Guihulngan and other Oriental towns is the lack of power and water. A serious problem that compounds the difficulties of the quake victims.

I had covered and participated in several quakes in the past. But this is one of the worst in my experience.

The thing that struck me was the report Monday night of more than a hundred Villagers of Victorias City who rushed to and parked themselves in the Victorias public plaza to escape the so-called tsunami.

Vice Mayor Wantan Palanca tried his best to assure them that he was going to care of them and not leave them there, but they should be assuaged that the tsunami was no danger to them.

That only brings to the fore the need to serve through mass media timely warning of tsunami and the lifting of the warning. Also the explanation that tsunami could not possibly have swept into their village in Victorias City.

In the City of San Carlos, Mayor Jesus Villamayor personally said he saw the water withdrew several meters from the shoreline of the city that drove the people from their homes to seek shelter in higher grounds of the city.

The returning waves ,though, were not strong enough to innundate their abandoned village but it certainly must have been scary enough to make villagers hesitate in going down to their homes later. Villamayor ordered police and barangay tanods to secure the abandoned homes.

In Murcia town and in Cadiz City, the Mayors reported that the water from their water pipes turned brownish. Jose Marie Vargas of Bacolod later claimed that this may due to the volcanic underground apparently responding to the quake and diluting the purity of the water sources.

So, what do we make out of these reports? Only to remain vigilant for the authorities to undertake a containing education of the public on what to do in the case of earthquakes and what to expect thereafter.

The only thing I can say is to warn the public from believing cellphone messages about aftershocks and potential damaging developments which do not come from the pertinent government authorities. And, of course, rumor-mongers to stop further alarming the public about rumors tall tales of an impending tsunami.

***

We can only wait and see what is going to develop in the case of the problems on the return of the remains of former Rep. Iggy Arroyo to the Philippines. What is happening right now is the tragic standoff between Aleli, the legitimate wife of Iggy and his erstwhile companion, Grace Ibuna. The latter had managed to convince a London Mortuary that she was his next of kin and his wife.

In short, everything remains on hold pending adjudication of the standoff.*

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