The death toll from Typhoon Kalmaegi in the central Philippines yesterday climbed past 100 as the devastating impact on Cebu province became clearer after the worst flooding in recent memory.
Floodwaters described as unprecedented had rushed through the province’s towns and cities a day earlier, sweeping away cars, riverside shanties and even massive shipping containers.
Cebu spokesman Rhon Ramos said that 35 bodies had been recovered from flooded areas of Liloan, a town that is part of the metro area of the provincial capital, Cebu City.
Photo: Reuters
The grim news brought the toll for Cebu to 76, while on neighboring Negros Island, at least 12 people were dead and 12 more were missing after Kalmaegi’s driving rain loosened volcanic mudflow, which buried homes in Canlaon City, police Lieutenant Stephen Polinar said.
“Eruptions of Kanlaon volcano since last year deposited volcanic material on its upper sections. When the rain fell, those deposits rumbled down onto the villages,” he said.
Only one Negros death had been included in an earlier government tally of 17 deaths outside Cebu.
Photo: Reuters
That figure included six crewmembers of a military helicopter that crashed while on a typhoon relief mission.
“Around four or five in the morning, the water was so strong that you couldn’t even step outside,” Reynaldo Vergara, 53, said yesterday, adding that everything in his small shop in Mandanaue had been lost when a nearby river overflowed.
“Nothing like this has ever happened. The water was raging,” he said.
Photo: Reuters
In nearby Talisay, where an informal settlement along a riverbank was washed away, 26-year-old Regie Mallorca was already at work rebuilding his home.
“This will take time because I don’t have the money yet. It will take months,” he said as he mixed cement and sand atop the rubble.
The area around Cebu City was deluged with 18.3cm of rain in the 24 hours before Kalmaegi’s landfall, well over its 13.1cm monthly average, weather specialist Charmagne Varilla said.
Cebu Governor Pamela Baricuatro on Tuesday called the situation “unprecedented” and “devastating.”
Nearly 800,000 people were moved from the typhoon’s path.
The catastrophic loss of life in Cebu comes as the public seethes over a scandal involving so-called ghost flood-control projects believed to have cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
“You begin to ask the question why we’re having terrible flash floods here when you have 26.6 billion pesos [US$452.32 million] for flood control projects” in the national budget, Baricuatro said in an interview with local outlet ABS-CBN.
“Definitely we have seen projects here ... that I would say are ghost projects,” she said.
NETWORK-MAPPING PROJECT: The database contains 170 detailed files of Taiwanese politicians and about 23 million records of household registration data in Taiwan China has developed a network-mapping project targeting political figures and parties in Taiwan to monitor public opinion during elections and to craft tailored influence campaigns aimed at dividing Taiwanese society, according to documents leaked by Chinese technology firm GoLaxy (中科天璣). The documents, collected by Taipei-based Doublethink Lab, showed a database was specifically created to gather detailed information on Taiwanese political figures, including their political affiliations, job histories, birthplaces, residences, education, religion and a brief biography about them. Several notable Taiwanese politicians are in the database, including President William Lai (賴清德), former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍),
RECOGNITION: Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry said that Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy serves as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region Taiwan can lead the unification of the Chinese people, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa said in Taipei yesterday, adding that as the world order is changing, peaceful discussion would find good solutions, and that the use of force and coercion would always fail. Walesa made the remarks during his keynote address at a luncheon of the Yushan Forum in Taipei, titled “Indo-Pacific Partnership Prospects: Taiwan’s Values, Technology and Resilience,” organized by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Walesa said that he had been at the forefront of a big peaceful revolution and “if
UPGRADED MISSILE: The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology is reportedly to conduct a live-fire test of the Hsiung Feng III anti-ship missile on Thursday next week The US Army is planning to build new facilities to boost explosives production and strengthen its supply chain, a move aimed at addressing munitions shortages and supporting obligations to partners including Taiwan, Ukraine and Israel, Defense News reported. The army has issued a sources sought notice for a proposed Center of Excellence at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky, the report said. The facility would serve as a hub within the US industrial base for the production of key military explosives, including research department explosives (RDX) and high melting explosives (HMX), while also supporting research and development of next-generation materials. The proposed
SOUTH KOREA DISPUTE: If Seoul continues to ignore its request, Taiwan would change South Korea’s designation on its arrival cards, the foreign ministry said If South Korea does not reply appropriately to a request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, the government would take corresponding measures to change how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. Taipei has asked Seoul to change the wording. Since March 1, South Koreans who hold government-issued Alien Resident Certificates (ARC) have been identified as from “South Korea” rather than the “Republic of Korea,” the
RSS