PNoy Spends Night in Evacuation Tent in Bohol

Like thousands of earthquake victims in the province, President Benigno Aquino III and his entourage slept in tents on Wednesday night while in Loon, one of the most isolated towns in Bohol after the October 15 earthquake, Gma news online reported on Thursday.

Gma news reporter Ruth Cabal said the last time PNoy slept in a tent was in grade school. For a night, the President lived the way many Boholanos did.

Cabal has said she was unsure if portable toilets were available where the President was staying as there were none in some evacuation centers in the area. However, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said materials to build temporary toilets had been delivered there, she noted, Gma news online reported.

Reports said Aquino purposely did not seek better accommodations to experience what many disaster evacuees go through every day. The President also wanted to assure residents that it is already safe despite talk of a possible occurrence of a sinkhole or even another powerful earthquake. He also stressed the need for life to return to normalcy as much as possible despite the aftershocks,Gma news online reported.

Phivolcs has said that the scores of aftershocks since October 15 were just minor tremors as the tectonic plates in the earth stabilizes. The occasional shaking of the earth, however, can still dislodge loose debris in homes and buildings, Gma news online said.

From Loon town, the President was scheduled to visit Sagbayan on Thursday to inspect what volcanologists believed was the epicenter of the earthquake. Sagbayan’s poblacion is in ruins, its municipal hall with Greek-like pillars reduced to the frame of the building, as walls and fixtures tumbled during the quake, Gma news online reported.

Reports said Aquino has ordered the immediate delivery of relief goods to far-flung areas as roads have been cleared and access returned. He also assured that around P20-billion of savings may be tapped for the recovery and rehabilitation of Bohol.

The NDRRMC update, as of 6 am, said the quake had affected 631,605 families or 3,158,009 people in 1,494 villages in 59 towns and six cities in six provinces.

Based on these records, NDRRMC stated 14,740 families or 78,897 people are staying in 125 evacuation centers. The NDRRMC added that at least 2,654 aftershocks were recorded since the Oct. 15 quake. Of these, it said, 68 had been felt.

The death toll remained at 198, with 185 in Bohol. The number of injured people now reached 668, with 574 of them in Bohol, Gma news online reported.

The town of Loon is a second income class municipality in the province of Bohol. It was among the hardest hit towns after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the areas of Visayas and some parts of Mindanao last October 15, 2013. About a third of all casualties occurred in Loon,where its church, dating from the 1850s totally crumbled to the ground.

Source: Gma news online