Assessment (1)

View on the way to main land Bantayan.
Courtesy of Ms. De Ramos

Our coordination and link to the Bantayan Island group is through Mr. Anthony Castroverde, the Mayor's Executive Assistant of the Municipality of Bantayan.  With the first conversations with him last week, he articulated how difficult the situation on the island is.  Even though Bantayan is one of the severely hit areas of Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda, it was never the focus of the media and of the national government’s support.

With our intention to find out where we could help more effectively to this island group, we were told by Mr. Castroverde that the islets of Barangay Sulangan receive very less relief and attention.  That is how we came about the idea of supporting these islets – Silagon, Biagayag, Panitugan, and Moamboc.

We waited for the figures to come in so that we can also strategize how to support these islets with our limited resources.  As per latest information from Mr. Castroverde, here is the number of households per islet:

·         Silagon – 89

·         Moamboc – 204

·         Panitugan – 172

·         Biagayag – 101

If we estimate 3-5 persons per household, we will not possibly cover all the islets.  We have now initially agreed on working with the Silagon community as it would be impossible for us at this time to commit to all the islets.

Today, I was supposed to head to Bantayan and check the area.  The objective was to meet with the local leaders, agree on what support are to come from us, and arrange the activity for 21-30 December.

I postponed my trip since I caught flu.  In addition, the ferry connection is not yet back to normal.  There is only one ferry per day and if I did go, I have to stay the night and back in Bacolod afternoon of Monday (which I cannot afford due to work). 

It turned out to be a good decision and coincidence since the Islamic Relief is also in Bantayan Town (and earlier than me).  I could have not possibly talked to our contact because he needed to accompany them to other island barangays.

As to other coordination established, Xavier University is on a mission in in northern Cebu covering psycho-trauma, post disaster assessment, sanitation, medical mission and relief. They are based at Medellin (mainland Cebu). I contacted the person who is currently in Bantayan and asked him to include our areas in their assessment.  They are willing to share their findings and I hope to get feedback from them in the coming days.

Bangon Bantayanons, an initiative to help the whole island group of Bantayan is also now informed about our initiative.  This is make the coordination much easier and to share information and resources.  We have linked them as well at this blogsite.

So for now, I will wait for Mr. Castroverde if he ever go to Bacolod in the next days.  I plan to visit Bantayan next weekend to bring some rice, tents, tarps and candles.  If you want to share something, please contact us.

Images:

• Video of Bantayan after the typhoon.
• News and Images from The Rappler