Philippines government faces criticism over slow typhoon response
By correspondent Stephen McDonell, wires
Updated 6 hours 40 minutes ago
The Philippines government is defending itself against claims that its response to Typhoon Haiyan has been largely inadequate.
President Benigno Aquino is under growing pressure to speed up the distribution of food, water and medicine to desperate survivors and to get paralysed local governments functioning.
He has said the death toll might have been higher had it not been for the evacuation of people and the readying of relief supplies.
The Philippines formally asked Washington for help on Saturday, one day after the storm slammed into cities and towns in the central Philippines, the US State Department said.
Mr Aquino has also stoked debate over the extent of the casualties, citing a much lower death toll than the 10,000 estimated by local authorities.
The official confirmed death toll stood at 2,357 on Thursday, a figure aid workers expect to rise.
City administrator Lim, who previously estimated 10,000 people likely died in Tacloban alone, said Mr Aquino may be deliberately downplaying casualties.
"Of course he doesn't want to create too much panic. Perhaps he is grappling with whether he wants to reduce the panic so that life goes on," he said.
Widespread looting of rice stocks and other supplies broke out across hardest-hit Leyte province on Wednesday, despite the deployment of solders to maintain law and order.
While international relief efforts have picked up, many petrol station owners whose businesses were spared have refused to reopen, leaving little fuel for trucks needed to move supplies and medical teams to affected areas.
Bodies still litter the streets of Tacloban, while others lie putrefying in body bags outside the broken city hall, awaiting mass burials.
The city government remains decimated, with just 70 workers compared to 2,500 normally, he added.
Many were killed, injured, lost family or were simply too overcome with grief to work.
The USS George Washington aircraft has arrived in the Tacloban, with 5,000 sailors and more than 80 aircraft on board.
Marine Brigadier General Paul Kennedy says it will significantly improve relief efforts around the devastated coastal city.
Japan plans to send up to 1,000 troops as well as naval vessels and aircraft, in what could be Tokyo's biggest post-war military deployment.
United Nations has 'let people down'
Meanwhile, the United Nations has admitted its response to the typhoon disaster in the Philippines had been too slow, amid reports of hunger and thirst among desperate survivors.
The UN's humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said the scale of the disaster and the logistics challenges it posed meant that six days on from the storm, some places remained without help.
"There are still areas that we have not been able to get to where people are in desperate need," she told reporters in Manila
"I very much hope that over the next 48 hours that that will change significantly.
"I do feel that we have let people down."
Criticism is growing over the pace of aid to Tacloban and other areas that were splintered by Typhoon Haiyan when it swept through the central Philippines last Friday.
Thousands of desperate survivors are clamouring to get out of a place where clean drinking water is in short supply and many have no shelter.
"The situation is dismal. Those who have been able to leave have done so. Many more are trying. People are extremely desperate for help," Ms Amos said.
"We need to get assistance to them now. They are already saying it has taken too long to arrive. Ensuring a faster delivery is our... immediate priority."
However, she added: "There are thousands (of them) but we would never make the claim that we would be able to get to everyone."
Ms Amos, who visited Tacloban on Wednesday to see the scale of the disaster, said her staff felt frustrated that supplies were stuck in the capital Manila.
The Philippines' shaky infrastructure took a battering in Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest storms ever to make landfall.
Many roads were left impassable, cluttered by debris from broken buildings that were destroyed when the ocean surged ashore.
More on Typhoon Haiyan
- Concern over future of AusAID following typhoon response
- Curfews, armoured vehicles hit Philippines
- Fears for three Australians missing in the Philippines
- Typhoon hits Vietnam as millions await aid in devastated Philippines
- Australia and other nations promise aid to Philippines
- In pictures: Vietnam prepares for Typhoon Haiyan
- In pictures: Trail of destruction left by Super Typhoon
ABC/AFP/Reuters
Topics: storm-disaster, disasters-and-accidents, relief-and-aid-organisations, government-and-politics, philippines, asia
First posted Thu 14 Nov 2013, 7:17pm AEDT
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AEDT = Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time which is 11 hours ahead of UTC (Greenwich Mean Time)
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