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LAGMAN: NO COMMUNICATION IN ALBAY’S 1ST DISTRICT RAVAGED BY TYPHOON ROLLY

Press Statements

Five (5) of the six (6) local government units (LGUs) of the First District of Albay are inaccessible by all forms of communications after they were ravaged by super typhoon Rolly on November 1, 2020.

All except for the Municipality of Sto. Domingo, the five (5) LGUs are Tabaco City, Bacacay, Malinao, Malilipot, and Tiwi, where Rolly made a second landfall. 

Maximum Signal No. 5 was hoisted over these five LGUs.

Tabaco City Mayor Krisel Lagman had to go to Legazpi City to make her initial report for Tabaco City, as follows:

  1. There are no fatalities among Tabaco City residents, including the Island of San Miguel consisting of five (5) barangays, which is a tribute to the tireless efforts of local and barangay officials to undertake preemptive evacuation and the maximum cooperation of residents in the high-risk areas in transfering to safer evacuation centers. 

  2. Almost 50% of residential houses are in various stages of disrepair, but 50% of the houses in San Miguel Island are totally damaged. 

  3. Ninety percent of fishing bancas used for livelihood have been washed out and completely destroyed. 

  4. The public market in Tabaco City was unroofed.

  5. The Manalang House (Bahay na Bato), which was built in the 1800s and declared a heritage house in 2007, was likewise unroofed.

  6. Almost 50% of the roofing of all school buildings have been damaged. 

  7. The windows and other parts of the heritage Old City Hall and the New City Hall have also been destroyed.

  8. A multi-purpose building in Barangay San Lorenzo collapsed where underneath 21 vehicles were parked for “safety”. 

  9. In Tabaco City alone, there were 7,000 families or 25,000 individuals who were under preemptive evacuation, and many of them have no more homes to return to because their houses have been destroyed by Rolly.

  10. Various river dikes have also been destroyed. 

  11. Almost 70% of the electric cooperative line posts have fallen.

  12. Even the roofing of the 17th century Tabaco Catholic Parochial Church has been blown off. The Diocese of Tabaco was established 400 years ago.

Aside from food supplies, medicines and hygiene kits, there is crucial need for roofing and housing materials for indigent and marginalized families.

                                    EDCEL C. LAGMAN