Relief arrives at isolated San Jose de Buan

By Philippine Information Agency (PIA 8)
January 17, 2011

TACLOBAN CITY  –  After being isolated for six days due to floodwaters that washed out several bridges and landslides that blocked the only road that leads to it, the hinterland municipality of San Jose de Buan in the province of Samar, today received its much needed help.

Major General Mario Chan, commanding officer of the 8th Infantry Division, informed that the chopper of the Philippine Air force carrying the relief goods and the team composed of GMA Kapuso Foundation and troopers of the 8ID, after several failed attempts since this morning, was able to land in San Jose de Buan.

As of press time, the chopper is already on its second sortie of delivering relief goods.

It was reported that on Sunday, the chopper of the Tactical Operations Group attempted to land at San Jose de Buan but also failed.

The Municipality remains to be isolated due to landslide and damaged bridges, Mayor Ananias Rebato said.

The local government unit despite its meager resources has provided relief goods in the form of rice, noodles and sardine.

Mayor Rebato said that the drop off point of relief assistance was at Barangay Hinicaan, Motiong, Samar, about 11 kilometers away from San Jose de Buan. The recipients, the Mayor said, had to hike 10 klilometers to get the relief goods.

Mayor Rebato further reported that road maintenance workers have been deployed to conduct clearing operations on landslide sites as well as to repair the damaged timber bridges so that relief assistance could be facilitated soon.

However, Mayor Rebato mentioned that doing these manually would take a long time before being completed if done manually.