VILLAR REACHES OUT TO NORTH AND CENTRAL LUZON VICTIMS

The northern and central Luzon provinces were hit hard by typhoon "Pepeng." In Cagayan, damages to agriculture and property including the farmers' fertilizer stocks were estimated at 50 million pesos. Even though heavy rains brought by the typhoon rendered roads around the area impassable due to mudflows and floods, Nacionalista Party President Senator Manny Villar still managed to extend help to the disaster victims.

Sen. Villar was on a mission to help out to as much provinces as he can in Pepeng-stricken north Luzon. He was able to reach out to at least 50,000 victims affected by the typhoon in areas such as Bulacan, Cagayan, Ilocos Norte, La Union, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Pangasinan, Sampaloc, and Tarlac.

Just days after his rescue and relief operations in Pangasinan, where he visited typhoon victims at Pangasinan State University in Bayambang and was even able to do an ocular inspection of the flooded area via helicopter, Villar doubled his efforts by extending a hand to the victims in Cagayan. He understood the difficulty of their situation, and arranged his team to provide help at the province.

Villar said, "The typhoon victims in central and northern Luzon are experiencing dreadful conditions since parts of their land are under water as bodies of river continue to swell due to record amounts of rainfall." Particularly in Cagayan, where the small motorized boats that locals use to travel to the mainland may not able to pass the rough seas, and the seaworthy boats would take 16 hours of travel so the province is having difficulty in delivering the relief goods to these areas. "I knew I had to do something or else these isolated people would starve to death," he added.

As the typhoon "Ondoy" wreaked havoc on Metro Manila, it was typhoon "Pepeng" that managed to destroy central and northern Luzon; death toll has reached 375, 48 people are missing, and damage to property is estimated at P8.142 billion including P1.607 billion on infrastructure and P6.532 billion in agriculture. Total damage on agriculture from the two typhoons already hit P18 billion, with over 121,949 hectares of croplands destroyed.