Armored vehicles have been deployed, checkpoints set up and curfew imposed in Tacloban to help end looting in a city devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan.
Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said the government’s three main priorities were to restore peace and order, bring in relief goods and start collecting dead bodies.
“Now that we have achieved number one and two, the priority is the recovery of the cadavers,” he said.
Four Simba armored personnel carriers have been deployed to contain looting and help restore law and order, a day after hundreds of Philippine soldiers and police were sent to the city.
“We are circulating them (the Simbas) in the city to show the people, especially those with bad intentions, that the authorities have returned,” Roxas told DZMM radio. Checkpoints have been set up to stop people from mobbing relief trucks, he said.
The devastated provincial capital, a city of 220,000 residents, has seen some of the worst pillaging.
Famished survivors desperate for food and medical supplies have ransacked aid convoys, hampering relief efforts.
Survivors have reported gangs stealing consumer goods including televisions and washing machines from small businesses. AFP
Photo: File/AFP
