'Santi' spoils relief goods for victims of past cyclones

Typhoon Santi (Mirinae) soaked in floodwaters relief goods for victims of past cyclones in a town in Laguna, forcing local officials there to ask for more food donations. Santa Cruz town mayor Ariel Magcalas said Monday that the food supplies stocked in a covered court were flooded after Laguna de Bay overflowed over the weekend. “Kailangan namin ng pagkain at tubig. Nakahanda na sana ang pagkain para sa mga apektado ng bagyong Ondoy at Pepeng ... pero inabot ng tubig ilog.... Nabasa ang first at second layer ng bigas na nakaimbak (We need food and water donations again as the relief goods we got for victims of cyclones Ondoy and Pepeng were soaked in floodwaters that rose up to the second layer of the stockpile of donated rice)," Magcalas said in an interview on dzBB radio. He said the United Nations’ World Food Programme officials advised him not to distribute the damaged food. But he said they may distribute the “relatively" intact food items, including canned goods. Magcalas said that as of Monday, some 26 villages in the town remained flooded. In Majayjay town, meanwhile, Santi caused jeep fares to triple, as a collapsed bridge there caused road rerouting, and operators blamed the long detour route for the tripling of fare rate. Radio dzBB’s Nimfa Ravelo reported that the jeep fare went up from the regular P25 to as high as P75. Santi lashed Southern Luzon and Bicol after making landfall in Quezon province last Saturday. Majayjay is a fourth-class town, with a population of 23,681 people in 4,978 households. - GMANews.TV