Mindanao Daily NEWS TEAM BUTUAN IN LEYTE Volume II, No. 138
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Tuesday
November 26, 2013
P15.00
northmin . westmin . caraga . davao Your Mindanao-wide Community Newspaper
By MARIA LUISA DIANAH Z. GENERALAO/CMO-PIO
Noon arrival in Tacloban, Butuan City Mayor Amante (left, standing) confers with (from left, sitting) Energy Sec. Carlos Petilla, DILG Sec. Mar Roxas, Defense Sec. Voltaire Gazmin and DSWD Sec. Dinky Soliman.
Sec. Roxas (right) assigns Butuan TEAM led by Mayor Amante and his wife Ivy, to Palo town.
The Butuan Medical team attends to Typhoon “Yolanda” wounded survivors.
(A day-to-day account of events from November 10-13, 2013 during which a Butuan City team led by Mayor Ferdinand M. Amante, Jr., an orthopedic surgeon, his wife Ivy Amante, a nurse, City Councilor Virgilio Nery, Jr., a general surgeon, a complement of six other nurses, city hall employees and policemen, spent four days in “Yolanda”- devastated Leyte towns to deliver relief goods and medical supplies to the Leyte provincial government, to treat and attend to typhoon victims’ medical needs and to help in clearing streets and roads of fallen and uprooted trees, broken electric posts and debris in the aftermath of the “world’s strongest typhoon this year”.) A DAY AFTER TYPHO ON “YOL ANDA” SLAMMED INTO Eastern and Central Visayas and wreaked havoc on Leyte, Butuan City Mayor Ferdinand M. Amante, Jr. thought of sending a team and “lend a helping hand” to the devastated province. He decided to organize a team for Tacloban City and “help out” in whatever small way he and Butuan could. He instructed his staff to prepare all that was necessary for medical assistance, relief and clearing operations. A team swiftly moved to fill boxes of canned goods, noodles, bottled water, used clothes, medicines, medical supplies and clearing equipment and loaded them on a dump truck and other vehicles. The mayor ordered that another dump truck of relief goods be sent to reinforce the initial supplies he would bring. Team Butuan was composed of two doctors: Mayor Amante himself who is an orthopedic surgeon, City Councilor Virgilio Nery, Jr., a general aurgeon, seven
nurses including the mayor’s better half, Ivy Amante, one speedboat operator, four heavy equipment operators, the mayor’s staff and PIO, a Butuan Search and Rescue Team (BUSART) headed by Ms. Grace Espere and Mr. Bong Catedral, and a 14man Peace-Keeping Force led by Insp Erwin Cordano, courtesy of the Butuan City Police Office-City Mobile Group. On November 10, a Sunday, while the city was still asleep, Team Butuan was up and ready for the journey. After a quick prayer, the team’s convoy of eight vehicles left the Butuan City hall grounds at 7 am for Surigao City. At the Surigao City port, our convoy boarded a ferry boat and reached Barangay Benit, San Ricardo, Southern Leyte at 10 am. Disembarking at Barangay Benit wharf, our convoy took the road expecting we would make it to Tacloban City in four hours. Typhoonbattered roads strewn with fallen and uprooted trees forced us to make a detour to the only passable but longer route to Tacloban via Ormoc City. We reached Mahaplag, Leyte, some 74 kilometers from Tacloban, where Mayor Amante thought it best to spend the night. The town was slightly affected by Typhoon “Yolanda” but had no electricity. We camped outside a SEE FULL STORY/p.A4
Mrs. Ivy Amante, a nurse, attends to a baby while Mayor Amante (at the back) talks to another patient.
Mayor Amante (left) cleans a patient’s wound as another team member assists.
A Butuan Medical team member washes a baby’s wound.
Mayor Amante shares a bottle of water to a toddler.
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