President Rodrigo Roa Duterte wants the government to build safe temporary shelters for the families affected by Typhoon Odette in the far-flung communities.

“Ito ba sila sheltered na in the sense that there is a whatever na protektado na sila sa ulan pati ‘yung maginaw na gabi? (Are they sheltered in the sense that there is a whatever protection for them against rain and those cold nights?). Were they provided with such kind of material to build temporary shelters, not houses?” Duterte asked Office of the Civil Defense Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad, who was reporting on the ongoing government-led response efforts for the Odette victims during the President’s prerecorded Talk to the People aired on Tuesday morning.

Jalad said the affected families were already provided with emergency shelter materials while the government is assisting them to rebuild their typhoon-damaged houses.

He said carpentry teams from the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Bureau of Fire Protection were already deployed in Eastern Visayas (Region 8) to help the people rebuild and reconstruct their destroyed houses.

More than 339,000 displaced individuals, he added, are still residing in 1,146 evacuation centers, some of them were temporarily staying with their relatives.

Meanwhile, Duterte is eyeing to visit again the “Odette”-hit areas to also make sure the affected families are safe from the threat of Covid-19 infections.

“I want to make the rounds again kasi daw ang problema nito sabi may (because there’s a problem on) COVID,” he said. “Sabi ko na balikan ko ‘yung mga lugar na tinamaan ng bagyo at kung ano na ang sitwasyon, and whether or not sinunod ba nila ‘yung utos ko (I want to go back to the typhoon-hit areas and see their situation and whether or not my orders were followed).”

Duterte said he also wants to find out if the inhabitants within temporary shelters were already vaccinated against the dreaded Covid-19 infections.

“Kasi ‘pag hindi pa at saka nandiyan pa ‘yung health workers, gamitin na lang ng Coast Guard ‘yung fast craft nila. Eh talagang mabilis ‘yun. Ipa-deliver na lang natin ‘yung bakuna para maisa na lang. Alam mo, it—pati bukid ‘yan eh, ‘yung iba. It would be hard for us to go there sa kanila sa bukid tapos maghanap ng mga tao na mabakunahan (Because if not yet and the health workers are still in there, let’s just use the assets of the Coast Guard and their fast craft. It’s really fast. Let’s just deliver the vaccines, so we can have it all in. You know, the other areas are far-flung communities. It would be hard for us to go there because it’s remote areas, then we’ll look for people to get vaccinated),” said Duterte.

According to the data released by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) on January 19, the number of families affected by “Odette” has reached a total of 2,336,249, more than a month after it swept through many areas in the Visayas and Mindanao.

These affected families, or equivalent to 8,329,076 individuals, are in 8,910 barangays in Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Davao region, Soccsksargen, Caraga, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

The strong typhoon damaged 1,369,433 houses, including 344,650 classified as totally damaged, the NDRMMC said. (PNA)