Philippines disaster aid system collapsed - President

The disaster relief system in the Philippines collapsed in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, Benigno Aquino, the country's president, admitted on Monday. On the second day of a tour of the islands of Samar and Leyte, where thousands died and millions were left homeless, Aquino said he was "driven to despair" by the disaster.

"The systems failed," he said. "We had a breakdown in power, a breakdown in communications, a breakdown in practically everything." Although airlifts of aid were beginning to reach even the most isolated areas struck by the strongest typhoon to hit land ever recorded, senior officials said there were still hurdles to the operation.

The United Nations said up to 2.5 million people remained in need of assistance. "We're still facing co-ordination problems and bottlenecks," said Bernard Kerblat, the UN high commissioner for refugees representative in Manila. "The situation we're facing in the Philippines is unprecedented in magnitude." Typhoon Haiyan, with wind speeds of up to 195mph, made landfall on Nov 8. It triggered a storm surge that laid waste to large areas of coastlines. The official death toll stands at 3,976 with 1,598 people missing.

The UN estimates that up to four million people have been displaced, of whom only 350,000 have found shelter in evacuation centres. In the latest controversy to hit the relief effort, a volunteer posted images of government workers repacking aid from Indonesia as official Philippine assistance. The Facebook page of Cherrey Mae Bartolata, a volunteer stationed in Mactan Air Base in Cebu, went viral.

"I am frustrated. I am angry. I feel hopeless," she wrote. Outlying islands have posed a particular challenge as the government and foreign donors poured into Tacloban, the city of 220,000 that was hit hardest by the storm surge. "Outside of Tacloban people are still begging for resources and getting very little," said Kendra Clegg, a UN official who has been based on Panay island on the western side of the archipelago. The already stretched budget of the Philippines government is being rewritten to reflect the impact of the disaster. There was some good news for Aquino after the World Bank and Asian Development Bank pledged $1 billion in loans to help with rebuilding.

"We are committed to supporting the government in its effort to recover and rebuild, and to help Filipinos strengthen their resilience against increasingly frequent extreme weather events," said Jim Yong Kim, the World Bank president.

Aquino must tread a fine line between pushing for a better performance from local and national government agencies and being seen to score political points against his opponents. Alfred Romualdez, the mayor of Tacloban, is a nephew of Imelda Marcos, the former first lady, and therefore a political enemy of  Aquino.

"The whole relief effort has been politically polarised," said Prospero de Vera, a political analyst at the University of the Philippines. "This will be the defining moment of Aquino's administration, and he needs to act very strongly and be very focused, and rise above any political bickering." Meanwhile, the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Daring, which anchored off Cebu port on Sunday, has loaded stores with humanitarian aid and was steaming to some of the outlying islands yesterday.

A 12-strong British medical team has also arrived in the Philippines and its members are being flown to different areas to treat injured victims of the typhoon. Britain's Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), an alliance of 14 charities, announced that its appeal for aid for the victims had reached 39 million pounds . Donations can be made at dec.org.uk, on 0370 60 60 900, over the counter at any bank or post office or via cheque. Donations of pounds 5 can also be made by texting "SUPPORT" to 70000.