Duterte on 'Lawin' preps: All is in place

In this undated photo, staff members and volunteers of the Department of Social Welfare and Devleopment sort boxes containing relief goods. DSWD/Screenshot, file

BEIJING – The government is ready for the impact of Supertyphoon Lawin and has prepositioned the needed medicines and other relief goods in areas that may bear its brunt, President Rodrigo Duterte said Wednesday.

 

“We have put in place all things necessary to mitigate whatever consequences the cyclone would bring,” Duterte told reporters in a press conference here.

 

“We are ready for everything. All is in place, the mitigation guys, the local and the national (governments) have been alerted,” he added.

 

Duterte said the Health and Social Welfare departments are now working to ensure the availability of medicine kits.

 

“Medicines are already in place. It has been deployed since the other day and we hope for the best,” the president said.

 

“We only pray that we be spared of a destruction such as in the previous path which brought agony and suffering to our people. But we are ready. Everything has been deployed,” he added.  

 

Duterte noted that the cooperation of the public is needed to minimize property damage and casualties. 

 

The supertyphoon is forecasted to make landfall over the Cagayan-Isabela area between late Wednesday and early Thursday and will cross Apayao and Ilocos Norte provinces.

 

Earlier this week, the Department of Agriculture also ordered its regional offices to prepare to help farmers deal with the expected damage to their crops.