CATEEL, Davao Oriental: Arnold Calungsod, 34, a father of three children and a resident of Abihod Village is trying to pick up the pieces left by Typhoon Pablo (international codename: Bopha) to get back on his feet again.

He and his family is temporarily staying at a shanty built along the national highway of Cateel where majority of homeless residents put up digs—a temporary shelter similar to pig and dog cages .  

Arnold opted to put up a shanty over the edge of national highway so that his family could at least get food ration from government and humanitarian groups providing food assistance.

But there are days that Arnold’s family go hungry when relief goods don’t come. Sometimes, Arnold beg for food for his three children, while the couple resorted to eating fallen coconut fruits to hush their empty stomach.

The road to recovery for typhoon victims is still bleak and Arnold is still clueless how he could start up a new life after Pablo—the sole of source of living he knew (coconut farming) was totally laid to waste here.      

“I have three children and I’m afraid how I could feed them. I am dependent on coconut income. I don’t know what to do, how to start a new life here. All crops were laid waste. Our place is like a wasteland,” Arnold told The Manila Times.

Cateel town facing the Pacific Ocean is one of the hardest hit towns of Davao Oriental where houses of solid and light materials were flattened to the ground. No one was spared rich or poor.

Pablo is the strongest typhoon that hit Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley in the last 100 years and the people of Mindanao still can’t believe that they will bear the brunt of natural calamities specifically typhoons,  according to Arnold.

“At first I didn’t believe in typhoons because Mindanao is typhoon-free and as far as I know, Bicol is the typhoon-prone region but in the wee hours of December 4, everything was history.

It was 100 years ago or 1912 when the strongest typhoon occurred here according to my lolo [grandfather] but I don’t have any idea what was the typhoon would be like,” he told The Manila Times.

Mindanao was severely hit by Pablo on December 4, 2012. The hardest hit are Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley.

The severely affected in Davao Oriental are the towns of Boston, Cateel and Baganga, while in Compostela province, the towns of New Bataan, Moncayo and Compostela.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council reported that the combined 1.1-million population in those affected municipalities and the two provinces suffered from severe damages to life, housing and livelihood.

Residential houses mostly made up of light materials were totally smashed, while government facilities were not spared from the disastrous effects of the strong winds and debris flows here.

Damage to coconut and banana plantations racked up to P11.2 billion resulting in economic dislocations of farmers solely dependent their income from affected plantation companies.

An aerial survey of Philippine Air Force helicopter where this reporter is one of the passengers with OCD Bicol Director Bernardo Alejandro and Cedric Daep of Team Albay-OCD5 Tabang MindaNow humanitarian mission, showed vast tracts of coconut plantations totally devastated and may require replanting to recover—which means that the coconut farmers needs to wait for 10 years.

Banana plantations will also require over a year to expect their first yield if immediately replanted. Individual farmers who are dependent from the plantation companies to earn a living are the sectors that suffer most as they all lost their houses and some of their family members.

Fishermen are likewise economically dislocated due to substantial damages and losses to fishing boats and nets.

Major infrastructures in Compostela Valley and the bridges in Davao Oriental are affected and the effect on accessibility is causing the delay of assistance specifically delivery of food rations to Boston, Cateel and Baganga.

Unfortunately most of the food rations were channeled to Compostella Valley considering that the big bulk of affected communities and the center of devastation occurred in three towns of Davao Oriental.

This prompted the Team Albay-OCD Bicol Tabang MindaNow to go to Davao Oriental passing through Surigao province. The provincial government of Albay had allocated an amount of P1-million for the two affected provinces.

The political dispute between provincial and local government units of Baganda in Davao Oriental causes confusion and created separate and uncoordinated offices making difficult for nongovernment organization’s and international groups to channel assistance to a sole receiving agency here.

Aside from divided management, the towns of Boston, Cateel and Baganga are considered as hot zones of the communist guerrillas where the lives of the government forces who are conducting humanitarian missions are at stake.

Mayor Remegio Nazareno of Baganga accused Davao Oriental Governor Corazon Malanyaon of favoring Cateel, for channeling more relief goods and funds to Cateel as the town’s mayor, Camilo Nuñez, is her brother while his town was totally neglected.

But Malanyaon denied Nazareno’s accusation. She said that Baganga is suffering from shortage of relief goods because the Baganga municipal government is unprepared.

To calm down the tension in Baganga, Maj. Gen. Ariel Bernardo, commanding general of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division designated Army Col. Krishnamurti “Kris” Mortela, commanding officer of 67th Infantry Battalion to head the incident command post to oversee and respond the needs of the communities.