Featured Fan Photo: Panikian Island, Zamboanga del Sur by Victoria Isabel Asuelo - A 30-minute banca ride from Pitogo, a 5th class municipality in the province of Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines will bring you to Panikian Island where long stretches of fine white sand and clear blue waters beckon both, swimmers and scuba divers
The government has said that rehabilitating the area is key to keeping out the militants, a goal that was already hampered by a shortage of funds and now will be much harder to accomplish because of the devastating floods, which have destroyed more than 14,000 houses and 22 schools in Swat.
The U.S. stepped in to help the government Sunday, promising $10 million in emergency aid. The high-profile gesture comes at a time when the Obama administration is trying to dampen anti-American sentiment in Pakistan and enlist the country's support to turn around the Afghan war.
The U.S. also provided rescue boats, water filtration units, prefabricated steel bridges and thousands of packaged meals that Pakistani soldiers tossed from helicopters as flood victims scrambled to catch them.
"This is much needed stuff in the flood-affected areas and we need more of it from the international community," said Latifur Rehman, a disaster management official in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa, the northwest province ravaged by the floods.
The U.S. provided similar emergency assistance after Pakistan experienced a catastrophic earthquake in 2005 that killed nearly 80,000 people. The aid briefly increased support for the U.S. in a country where anti-American sentiment is pervasive.
But feelings have since shifted, and only 17 percent of Pakistanis now have a favorable view of the U.S., according to a recent poll by the Pew Research Center. Conducted in April 2010, the survey has a margin of error of three percentage points.
The U.S. could be hoping to get a similar popularity boost from the emergency flood assistance. But like the earthquake relief effort, the U.S. must compete with aid groups run by Islamist militants who also use assistance to increase their support.
Representatives from a charity allegedly linked to the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group distributed food and offered medical services on Sunday to victims in the town of Charsada, one of the areas hit hardest by the floods.
"We are reaching people at their doorsteps and in the streets, especially women and children who are stuck in their homes," said an activist with the Falah-e-Insaniat charity who would identify himself only by his first name, Saqib.
With suspected ties to al-Qaida, Lashkar-e-Taiba has been blamed for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India, that killed 166 people, and the U.S. military has said the group has stepped up activity in Afghanistan as well.
Pakistani militant groups often rail against government ineffectiveness as a way to build support, a message likely to resonate with many in the northwest who have criticized the official flood response.
"My son has drowned, but I don't see the government taking care of us," said Sehar Ali Shah, standing in front of his half-submerged house in the city of Nowshera.
Some parents sought to save their children by carrying them on their shoulders as they waded through chest-high water fouled by the rotting carcasses of water buffalo.
Another flood victim, Hakimullah Khan, criticized the government for failing to help him find his wife and three missing children, who disappeared as water engulfed Charsada.
"The flood has devastated us all, and I don't know where my family has gone," said Khan. "Water is all around, and there is no help in sight."
The military has deployed 30,000 army troops who helped rescue more than 20,000 people, said Adnan Khan, a government disaster management official in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa.
However, rescuers have been unable to access certain areas and officials fear the death toll could increase beyond 1,100, he said.
More than 27,000 people in the province remained trapped and authorities said 43 military helicopters and 100 boats had been deployed to try to save them.
The rescue effort was aided by a slackening of the monsoon rains on Sunday. As floodwaters started to recede, officials began to understand the full scale of the disaster, which the U.N. estimated affected a million people nationwide.
"Aerial monitoring is being conducted, and it has shown that whole villages have washed away, animals have drowned and grain storages have washed away," said Rehman, the government disaster official. "The destruction is massive."
Shair Dad returned to his timber shop in Nowshera to find that most of his wood was lost in the floodwaters.
"I won't be able to recover my losses for 10 years," he said.
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Khan reported from Charsada. Associated Press writers Nabeel Yusuf in Nowshera and Khalid Tanveer in Taunsa Sharif contributed to this report.
The North Face – Thrill of the Trail – Bohol Series – September 12, 2010 July 20, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Ready for another trail running outside of the Manila? It’s time to visit Bohol and get the chance to try the trails they have to offer.
TNF – Thrill of the Trail Bohol 11K/22KM September 12, 2010 Bohol, Visayas
Start of race will be at 6am at Danao Municipal Hall. You can register at any of the following TNF Stores:
SM City North Edsa SM Mall of Asia Shangri-la Glorietta 4 SM Megamall ROX Ayala Cebu and BHS
SM City Cagayan de Oro SM City Cebu SM City Davao Res|Toe|Run Cebu and Dumaguete
Watchout for more updates of the TNF Thrill of the Trail Bohol at www.takbo.ph
For complete list of races , news and updates about running in the Philippines, please visit www.takbo.ph. Race results of the different running events are available at the download section.
SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union, Philippines – An undetermined volume of unleaded gasoline has leaked into the sea from a break in the pipeline of the Flying V fuel depot in Poro Point here yesterday.
Barangay councilor Butch Funesto, Poro Point pollution control officer, said the accident occurred while the M/T King Jr. was unloading gasoline through the pipeline to the fuel depot.
Funesto said the pipeline leaked because of the heavy pressure of gasoline being unloaded from the vessel.
“The pipe is only six inches in diameter. Usually the standard size should be eight inches in diameter so it can accommodate the load from the ship going to the fuel storage,” Funesto explained.
Funesto estimated that more than 30,000 liters of unleaded gasoline has leaked out as of noon yesterday, som of which has already reached the coast.
Funesto said a spill boom was installed along the seashore to contain the spill.
Two tankers of Flying V were rushed to the scene to pump out the gasoline while some residents in the coastal areas tried to collect the spill in plastic containers.
Mayor Pablo Ortega ordered Flying V to speed up the cleaning and coordinate efforts with the Coast Guard and environment officials to contain the spill.
“We will immediately act on this before it would affect the sea and the ground water,” Ortega said.
The gasoline spill comes in the aftermath of last week’s bunker fuel leak in the Petron pipeline in Rosario, Cavite.
The Coast Guard had ordered the deferral in the flushing of the estimated 60,000 liters of bunker oil from the Petron depot in Cavite to allow sealing off the leakage in the 2.6-kilometer pipeline.
Coast Guard National Capital Region-Central Luzon commander Commodore Luis Tuason Jr. said it would be more environment friendly if they seal off the leakage before they push the oil back to the depot.
Work crews from Petron, along with Herma Shipping Lines and the Coast Guard, have succeeded in plugging two main leaks along the pipeline by applying two coatings of putty cement and covering them with steel brace and clamps.
Tuason, however, said these are only temporary measures.
Tuason estimated a liter of oil is being leaked from the pipeline every 10 minutes.
But the situation so far, according to Tuason, has been contained.
The Maritime Environment Protection Command (Mepcom) had put up two layers of oil spill booms and sorbent pads at the scene to stop the oil from spreading.
The oil leak occurred at the height of typhoon “Basyang” on July 13 when motor tanker M/T Baliwag of Herma Shipping Lines reportedly hit the pipeline, cracking and twisting some portions of the pipe causing it to release small amounts of bunker oil.
In another development, Tuason said that they are still conducting a gas test on the M/T Deborah Uno, the half-submerged vessel in Bataan, to determine if the tanker was still leaking.
“If there is still a leak, that is mixed with air, and there is an igniter then it could explode. But if there is no more leak, then maybe we could ask Petron if they could already transfer the contents to another tanker,” he added.
The Coast Guard has sent additional men to cordon the 500-meter wide area surrounding the M/T Deborah Uno that contained 197 metric tons of propane.
Earlier measurements of the oxygen level of the gas outside the tank showed that it has reached five percent. The flammable limit is between 2.2 percent and 9.5 percent, thus making an explosion possible.
But there is a way to avoid the explosion, Tuason said.
He said they would just have to keep the temperature inside the tanker and the pressure outside the tanker within range to ensure that the liquid propane cargo would not turn into gas.
He explained that the propane liquid is multiplied several times, about 270, and if it turns to gas, the carbon steel container of the vessel might give way to the intense pressure.
The LPG tanker listed after being battered by huge waves at the height of Basyang in Limay, Bataan.
In another development, a cargo ship caught fire early yesterday while it was loading container vans at Pier 16, North Harbor in Manila
Initial investigation showed the fire broke out at the engine room of the cargo ship M/V West Ocean-1.
Responding firemen managed to contain the blaze with no reported casualties or injuries. With Evelyn Macairan
