Filipinos are losing patience with the slow relief effort and increasingly angry with President Benigno Aquino, a popular figure who has until now navigated multiple crises during his three years in office

Aquino faces growing anger

MANILA — Six days after devastating Typhoon Haiyan swept through the midsection of the impoverished island nation, Filipinos are losing patience with the slow relief effort and increasingly angry with President Benigno Aquino, a popular figure who has until now navigated multiple crises during his three years in office.

BY –

4 HOURS 32 MIN AGO

MANILA — Six days after devastating Typhoon Haiyan swept through the midsection of the impoverished island nation, Filipinos are losing patience with the slow relief effort and increasingly angry with President Benigno Aquino, a popular figure who has until now navigated multiple crises during his three years in office.Mr Aquino, 53, now faces the biggest challenge of his presidency, and even allies say he appears to have been caught off guard by the scope of the crisis. “He has to move fast, otherwise this will engulf him,” said Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, a veteran politician.

Although planes have begun arriving with badly-needed supplies, and a United States aircraft carrier arrived for storm relief yesterday, much of the aid remains undistributed because of impassable roads, a dearth of working vehicles and inadequate access to fuel.

“The situation is catastrophic; it’s total chaos,” said Dr Natasha Reyes, the Philippines Emergency Coordinator for Doctors Without Borders.

Mr Aquino flew to the devastated city of Tacloban on Sunday, but his public statements have struck some as insensitive when, for instance, he lashed out at looters. During a meeting with officials, the President expressed annoyance at his top disaster management official and grew peevish when a local business owner complained of being held up at gunpoint by looters.

“But you did not die, right?” Mr Aquino snapped, according to local news reports, shortly before guards ushered the man out of the room.

On Tuesday, Mr Aquino played down reports that the death toll could exceed 10,000, suggesting 2,000 might be more realistic, and attributing the larger figure to the “emotional trauma” of those providing the estimates.

Mr Ramon Casiple, Executive Director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform in Manila, said: “I don’t believe the lower figures put out by officials, but if the number turns out to be greater, you’re going to have a political backlash.”

While facing challenges including an earthquake last month that killed more than 200 people on Bohol, an island that was battered again last week by Typhoon Haiyan, Mr Aquino has also been credited for taking on endemic corruption. Responding to Haiyan will require him to navigate the clannish politics of a region traditionally loyal to the Marcos family, including Ms Imelda Marcos, 84, the wife of former President Ferdinand Marcos.

Meanwhile, the nuclear-powered USS George Washington aircraft carrier and accompanying ships arrived off eastern Samar province, carrying 5,000 crew and more than 80 aircraft.

As “Operation Damayan” started, ships carried 11 pallets ashore — eight containing 1,920 gallons of water and three containing food — at Tacloban airfield. Several pallets of water were taken to Guiuan, home to 45,000 people, which was also badly hit by the storm.

The carrier and its strike group together bring 21 helicopters to the area, which can help reach the most inaccessible areas.

Britain also said it would send a helicopter carrier, HMS Illustrious, to help in the relief effort. Japan was also planning to send up to 1,000 troops as well as naval vessels and aircraft, in what could be Tokyo’s biggest postwar military deployment.

Outside Tacloban, burials began for about 300 bodies in a mass grave yesterday. A larger grave will be dug for 1,000, city administrator Tecson John Lim told Reuters. Tacloban’s main convention centre, the Astrodome, has become temporary home for hundreds of people living in squalor. Families cooked meals amid the stench of garbage and urine.

The city government remains paralysed, with an average of 70 workers compared to 2,500 normally, said Mr Lim. Many were killed, injured, lost family or were simply too overcome with grief to work. The government was distributing 50,000 “food packs” containing six kilogrammes of rice and canned goods each day, but that covers only 3 per cent of the 1.73 million families affected by the typhoon. AGENCIES