His Excellency President Benigno S. Aquino III visited on August 10, 2012 the flood victims of the monsoon rains in Brgy. Sto. Niño Integrated School, one of the evacuation centers in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga. With him were DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo, DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman, Presidential Communications and Strategic Development Office Secretary Ricky Carandang, TESDA Director Joel Villanueva, DOE Secretary Jose Rene Almendras and Congressman Sonny Angara.
President Aquino was received by Gov. Lilia Pineda, Vice Gov. Yeng Guiao, City Mayor Oscar S. Rodriguez, Butil Partylist Rep. Agapito Guanlao, 3rd district rep. Aurelio Gonzales and other local officials of Pampanga. Likewise, DILG RD Florida M. Dijan; DSWD RD Adelina Apostol; PIA RD Robert Baldago; DOH ARD Dr. Edna Abcede and other Regional Directors of different National Government Agencies were also present in the activity.
In his speech, the President said that he has already talked with local officials in the region and have agreed to look into the reason that caused Pampanga River to overflow and resulted to a widespread flooding in the region. He said that one of the interventions would be engineering projects that will put a permanent and lasting solution to the problem. He also assured the flood victims that the government is doing its best to respond to the needs of those affected by the disaster.
President Aquino also led the distribution of relief goods to the first 20 of 105 families in the evacuation center. Each family evacuee received two packs of relief goods (food items), one prepared by the DSWD3 and another from TESDA 3. The food packs contain kilos of rice, canned goods, instant noodles, coffee and bottled water.
During the day, the President also visited some evacuation centers at Paniqui and Capas in Tarlac; Dinalupihan in Bataan; and Obando and Malolos City in Bulacan.
