Gov’t agencies deliver more aid to Ompong-stricken Cagayan

CAGAYAN RELIEF GOODS. A composite team of soldiers and policemen unloads relief goods for distribution to families affected by Typhoon Ompong at the Tuguegarao Airport in Cagayan province on Tuesday (Sept.18,2018). (PNA photo by Oliver Marquez)

MANILA — The latest batch of medicines and relief goods from the national government were delivered Tuesday morning in Tuguegarao City for distribution in Cagayan, one of the provinces hardest hit by Typhoon Ompong.

About 1,200 boxes of relief goods were unloaded by a composite team from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police at the Tuguegarao Airport.

Randolf Pagrigo, warehouse officer of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Region 2 (Cagayan Valley), said the agency — in coordination with the local government units — is set to distribute the food packs to the recipient barangays.

“From the (DSWD) National Resource Operation Center, our regional office will receive the family food packs, then we’ll hand it over to the local because they’re the ones who know who needs it most,” Pagrigo said.

He noted that the latest batch of delivery was in addition to the relief goods earlier sent by the main office.

“These are all additional, several goods were already delivered in our office,” he told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).

As of posting time, the distribution continues, he added.

Also offloaded from the Philippine Air Force C-130 cargo plane were 30 boxes of medicines from the Department of Health (DOH), estimated to benefit one barangay each kit.

“These kits have paracetamol, medicine for hypertension, and antibiotics. It’s a total of 30 kits,” Czar Torres, DOH logistics officer, told the PNA.

For Region 2, Torres said a total of 50 kits were sent, 20 of which are en route via land transport. “We expect it to arrive also today.”

Aside from medicines, hygiene kits were transferred from Manila to Cagayan before Ompong made a landfall in the Philippines, Torres said.

“We already sent the hygiene packs for Region 1 (Ilocos) and 2 last Tuesday. Each region gets 300 pieces of water containers and 500 hygiene kits,” he noted.

On Saturday, Typhoon Mangkhut, locally known as Ompong battered northern Luzon.

As of September 18 at 6 a.m., the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said 218,492 families have been reported affected by the typhoon.

In Region 2 and the Cordillera Administrative Region, the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council said the cost of damage to agriculture was pegged at PHP9.35 billion.