By Christopher Lloyd T. Caliwan
MANILA, Nov. 18 (PNA) — National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) executive director Eduardo del Rosario said on Monday that the water district in Tacloban City has resumed its normal operations roughly two weeks after the super typhoon “Yolanda” hit Eastern Visayas.
In a press conference, Del Rosario said the Tacloban City Water District resumed its full operations since Sunday.
He also said that that highways in Tacloban can also now accommodate two-way traffic.
He added the agency also created Task Force Normalization in Tacloban, Leyte with the government hoping that all basic services in the city will recover fully as soon as possible.
Del Rosario explained that with the normalization stage, their business activity and their market transactions will take full swing.
“Nagkakaroon na ng mga market transactions. Yung pera mo may value na unlike before na yung pera mo walang value kasi nga hindi ka makabili ng goods and services,” Del Rosario added.
In Tacloban, Del Rosario said the Land Bank of the Philippines is set to resume with its operations on Thursday, Nov. 21.
He said they are confident that other banking institutions will also open within the week.
Del Rosario said the government is now studying how to deliver goods to the affected residents on a regular basis until the situation goes back to normal.
He added that as of Sunday a total of 430,435 family food packs were distributed in the whole of Region 8 (Eastern Visayas).
Del Rosario said relief goods are the top priority to be brought to Eastern Visayas, followed by oil tanks, and private vehicles.
Meanwhile, the traffic bottleneck in Matnog, Sorsogon, which was being used as the departure point of relief goods from Luzon, has been eased because of the addition of landing craft tanks (LCTs) in the town’s port.
Del Rosario said that from the original eight slots, Matnog Port has increased its operations to accommodate six more LCTs which are all bound for Port Allen in Northern Samar.
He added that two more LCTs were also being deployed on a rotational basis in Bulan Port, also in Sorsogon. (PNA)