30 more evacuation centers to rise in Bicol

TEMPORARY SHELTER Residents fleeing their villages during the eruption of Mayon volcano in Albay province in 2018 seek temporary shelter at Bitano Elementary School in Legazpi City. -MARK ALVIC ESPLANA

President Duterte has given the go signal for the construction of more than 30 evacuation centers in six provinces in Bicol, two months after the region was hit by Typhoon “Usman” in late December.

Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Duterte approved the projects during a Cabinet meeting on Monday night.

Decent place

During his inspection of areas affected by Usman in Pili town, Camarines Sur, in January, Duterte said he would use the multibillion-peso road users’ tax to fund flood control and disaster rehabilitation projects for Bicol.

He also said he would build more evacuation centers in disaster-prone areas “so that displaced families would have a decent place to stay.”

He noted that the use of classrooms and school buildings as evacuation centers had often interrupted the education of students.

Local officials thanked Duterte for his plan to build more evacuation centers in Bicol.

Governors Al Francis Bichara of Albay and Miguel Villafuerte of Camarines Sur said the President had always kept his promises.

Villafuerte said 14 evacuation centers would be built this year in Camarines Sur.

In Masbate, Vice Gov. Kaye Revil said they would support any project that would benefit the province.

Cedric Daep, chief of the Albay public safety and emergency office, said the list of areas where the evacuation centers would be put up had yet to be finalized. But he said areas without such centers would be given priority. —WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER SOUTHERN LUZON