BAGUIO CITY – Two persons died while two others were wounded during the wrath of Super typhoon Pepito in most parts of the Cordillera late Sunday evening up to early Monday morning.
The two fatalities were a 13-year old and 63-year old males from barangay Kawayan, Asipulo, Ifugao who were allegedly buried by a landslide at the height of the weather disturbance.
Further, Dr. maria-Catbagan-Aplaten, regional director of the Cordillera office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD-CAR), said that the typhoon also affected some 4,295 families composed of 13,681 individuals.
Based on the data obtained from the DSWD-CAR, Ifugao had the highest number of affected families with 1,428 composed of 4,481 individuals followed by Baguio City with 1,045 families composed of 2,132 individuals, Benguet with 982 families composed of 3,537 individuals, Mountain Province – 341 families composed of 1,466 individuals, Kalinga – 282 families composed of 1,029 individuals, Apayao – 157 families composed of 532 individuals and Abra – 140 families composed of 503 individuals.
The DSWD-CAR official claimed that only four families composed of 16 individuals are inside the two active evacuation centers while there are 206 families composed of 713 individuals who are outside evacuation centers and are staying with their relatives or friends.
According to her, the agency was able to document some 209 damaged houses as a result of the wrath of the typhoon where 197 are considered to be partially damaged and 12 totally damaged houses.
Aplaten pointed out that the DSWD-CAR continuous to monitor the areas that had been affected by the super typhoon in close coordination with the various quick response teams and concerned local governments for the immediate provision of relief assistance to the calamity victims aside from maintaining its virtual emergency operations center for the response cluster and early recovery pillar in the various provincial offices.
Moreover, the agency already unloaded some 1,500 family food packs and 40 hygiene kits at the Ifugao satellite warehouse as replenishment and the eventual dispatch of trucks containing some 800 family food packs to Ifugao as a stand by replenishment.
Currently, she reported that the region has still some 56,906 family food packs worth P41.1 million and some 24,720 non-food items worth P52.7 million as well as some P2.9 million stand by fund ready for disposal in cases that the provinces need augmentation for the relief assistance to the typhoon victims in their respective jurisdictions.
Aplaten said that the food and non-food items had already been repositioned in the different satellite warehouses in the region which are ready for disposal upon the request of concerned local governments and for the agency’s relief assistance following the successive wraths of the different weather disturbances that struck the cordillera over the past several month where there were eleventh typhoons that visited the country from September 2 to November 19, 2024. By Dexter A. See
