THE VICTIMS OF TYPHOON YOLANDA CONTINUES TO RISE

         Manila, 12 Muharram 1435/16 November 2013 (MINA) – The death toll from Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) that swept the Visayas region, Philippine has increased by a thousand overnight, while the data on the number of victims of various agencies that much different from making “confused”.

        A notice board in Tacloban City Hall estimated the deaths at 4,000 yesterday, up from 2,000 a day before, in this town alone, Philippines online media PhilStar.com quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting, Saturday.

        Hours later, Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez apologized and said the toll was for the whole Visayas region.

       The toll, marked up on a whiteboard, was compiled by officials who started burying bodies in a mass grave on Thursday.

        Romualdez said some people may have been swept out to sea and their bodies lost after a tsunami-like wall of seawater slammed into coastal areas. One neighborhood with a population of between 10,000 and 12,000 was now deserted, he said.

        The City Hall toll was the first public acknowledgement that the number of fatalities would likely far exceed an estimate given this week by President Aquino, who said the loss of life from Yolanda would be closer to 2,000 or 2,500.

         Official confirmed deaths nationwide rose by more than 1,000 overnight to 3,621 yesterday after the typhoon, one of the strongest ever recorded, roared across the Visayas region a week ago.

        The figures came from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), which said 1,140 remain missing.

        Adding to the confusion, the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the latest overall death toll was at 4,460, but a spokesman said it was now reviewing the figure.

        The OCHA has reported the 4,460 fatality count in the Visayas and placed the number of people affected by the typhoon to 11.8 million and a total of 243,000 houses destroyed.

         It later withdrew this report, saying it had gotten wrong data. 

         Malacañang, however, maintained the official count and said they are not buying the higher death figures given by the UN body.

        “There is no attempt to hide or to fudge any figures. Any assertion otherwise would just be pure speculations at this point. That’s just pure speculation,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said.

        She said the “confusion” may have also arisen on the basis that the UN spokesman “recanted” his own estimates, “although there is also one agency that is insisting that they have not.”

        “As far as government is concerned, we are working with the official casualty count that is released by the NDRRMC,” Valte said.

        Valte said the NDRRMC is the primary source of information because “most of the departments are part of that particular structure.”

        On Tuesday, Aquino said estimates of 10,000 dead by local officials were overstated and caused by “emotional trauma.”

         Regional police director Chief Superintendent Elmer Soria, who made that estimate to media, was removed from his post on Thursday.

        “I have already instructed all the concerned agencies that they should not release or discuss their own opinion,” said NDRRMC executive director Eduardo del Rosario.

       The NDRRMC has been highly criticized for being slow in responding to the basic needs – food, water, medicine and shelter – of the thousands of hungry individuals displaced by Typhoon Yolanda. (T/P09).

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).