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Fresh from her 10-day visit to the United States, President Gloria
Arroyo will visit worst-hit Aklan province today to tour damaged
areas and assess devastation wrought by Typhoon Frank, assuring that
her government would “get to the bottom of this terrible
tragedy.”
“We have demanded a full accounting. We will
hold responsible all those who will be found liable for having
caused the deaths of many our countrymen, especially in the ship
that sank,” the Chief Executive said on Monday in a speech on
Philippine-Spanish Friendship Day and the 109th anniversary of the
siege of Baler in Baler, Aurora province. She was referring to the
sinking of Princess of the Stars on June 21 off Sibuyan Island in
central Romblon province.
Earlier in the day, President Arroyo presided
over a meeting of the Region 3 Disaster Coordinating Council and
accepted its Regional Disaster Preparedness and Response Plan that
adopts the “clustered” approach in responding to disasters.
This approach, according to Neri Amparo, the
regional chairman of the Office of Civil Defense, is in line with
the United Nations’ program of clustered approach that “defines
rules and responsibilities that each concerned government agency
must perform before, during and after a disaster strikes.”
Amparo pointed out that should another disaster
strike the country, the Department of Social Welfare and Development
will provide shelter and food, while the Department of Health will
maintain the health and nutrition of affected families.
Amparo said the approach assures utilization of
government resources to address disaster-stricken areas and would
greatly ease long-term effects of calamities on the people.
The response plan also features formulation and
upgrading of the region’s contingency plan, installation of a
disaster-warning system and enhancement of capabilities of local
governments to respond to disasters.
During Monday’s press briefing, Press
Secretary Jesus Dureza said Mrs. Arroyo might fly to Romblon to
oversee a medical mission and distribution of relief items there.
She will also fly to Digos, Davao del Sur, in
southern Mindanao to inaugurate the outpatient department of the
provincial hospital there and attend the city’s 41st founding
anniversary.
By noon, the President is expected to arrive in
Iloilo and conduct an aerial inspection of damaged areas before
presiding over a National Disaster Coordinating Council-Cabinet
level meeting at 1:30 p.m. in Iloilo City.
From Iloilo City, she will fly to Aklan and
oversee relief operations there before flying to Romblon. Aklan was
the worst hit in Western Visayas, according to authorities.
On Wednesday, Mrs. Arroyo will visit Cebu
province, where most families of the ferry victims come from.
Dureza said the President was also planning to
go to Sibuyan Island, to see how search and retrieval operations
were being carried out.
She will also attend the anniversary of the
Philippine Air Force, which was moved from Villamor Air Base in
Manila to Cebu.
On Monday, Mrs. Arroyo visited Clark Freeport in
Pampanga province and presided over a meeting of the Central Luzon
Regional Disaster Coordinating Council.
Repeating the weather bureau’s prediction that
at least 16 more typhoons may hit the country, the President
instructed local governments and concerned regional government
agencies to fast track the rehabilitation of areas affected by
Frank.
She received reports from government officials
on ongoing projects, such as rehabilitation of school buildings,
roads and bridges, which were damaged by recent typhoons and floods
in Central Luzon.
In Clark Freeport, the President designated
Secretary Edgar Pamintuan as chairman and chief executive officer of
North Rail Project, besides being chairman of the Subic-Clark
Alliance for Development Council.
Pamintuan said Mrs. Arroyo has instructed him to
complete the project, which will link the free port and Caloocan
City in Metro Manila, by 2010.
A former Angeles City mayor, he had announced
that he would immediately work for the repackaging and refinancing
of the North Rail Project that started in 2003 with a loan of $400
million from China’s Import-Export Bank and $100 million from the
Bases Conversion and Development Authority for the first phase, the
32-kilometer segment from Caloocan to Malolos City in Bulacan.
The project’s contractor, China’s National
Machinery and Equipment Group, supposedly was chosen by the Chinese
government without public bidding, but begged off from the project
over rising prices of steel and other rail-construction materials.
The Chinese contractor also complained of a
delay in the clearing of the railway’s right-of-way with informal
residents or squatters and their relocation to resettlement areas.
During her visit to the Clark Freeport, Mrs.
Arroyo got brief reports from Chairman Nestor Mangio and
President/CEO Victor Jose Luciano of Clark International Airport
Corp. about big developments at the Diosdado Macapagal International
Airport complex since the President’s last visit in April.
Mangio and Luciano submitted brief reports to
the President on the construction of the DMIA Terminal 2 project.
Costing $164 million, the international
airport’s Terminal 2 project is designed to accommodate some seven
million air passengers a year. The existing terminal can accommodate
only two million annually.
As soon as she arrived from the United States
early Monday morning, Mrs. Arroyo inspected facilities at the newly
opened Ninoy Aquino International Terminal 3. She, her delegation
and some 350-odd passengers on board Philippine Airlines Flight
PR-105 from San Francisco were the first-ever passengers to
disembark at the controversial terminal.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the new
terminal is undergoing “dry-run” proceedings to prepare it for
its eventual opening soon.
“This is not the official opening. This is a
dry run because we want to test the remaining systems that have to
be tested like, for example, the air-conditioning, escalators,
baggage carousel and of course the facilities. So the President
wants to see how things are. She wants to have a feel if indeed, in
case the legal aspects are finished, then we can finally open [the
airport to the public],” Ermita added.
With its “soft opening,” Michael Defensor,
Terminal 3 Task Force head, said the terminal would be opened to
domestic flights in three weeks, and international flights, within
six to seven months.
-- Angelo S. Samonte and Mark Louie P. Roxas
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