By Edwin L. Torrecampo
ILOILO CITY (PNA) — Six days after super typhoon Yolanda struck Northern Iloilo, Jesry Palmares is a mayor on edge, a burly man who towers over average Filipinos,but it seems he is unable to hold back the tears welling in his eyes.
The component city of Passi, about 50 kilometers off the capital here, unmistakably the most prosperous in landlocked Central Iloilo, was also at the receiving end of Yolanda’s wrath last Friday which left a trail of destruction of mangled houses, uprooted trees, and powerlines knocked off.
In the latest tally, Palmares disclosed that 10 of his constituents are dead and scores injured, damage to agriculture placed at nearly P100 million and infrastructure, more or less around P200 million.
His turf may not have been the hardest hit, he says, but nonetheless, the situation is just as depressing and a real ordeal as in any place where Yolanda made a landfall.
As the national government and Filipinos seem to have trained its eyes on Tacloban City, which he admits is far worse with its enormous human catastrophe, he insists his constituency also badly needs food, water and temporary shelters to hide from the heat and rain.
Tearfully, he is begging that some of the international aid now pouring into Leyte and Samar provinces be also provided to his city.
The provincial government has provided help, but only partial, the embattled mayor said. Food is scarce, business is down, water is hard to come by, power is still down, and communication is erratic, he said.
Reports of overpricing by traders is sending him boiling mad, and has threatened to throw them to jail.
“They just can’t do that in the midst of a calamity,” he said, as he begs for more help from the national government.
“I cannot look on passively while my people suffer,” Palmares said. (PNA)
LAM/AJP/ELTORRECAMPO/VLO