Iligan economy expected back on its feet in 3 months, says city exec
ILIGAN CITY, Philippines – The economy of Iligan City could recover from the devastation left by Tropical Storm “Sendong” in about three months but the normalization of the lives of its residents would take longer, according to the city government’s spokesman.
Melvin Anggot, Iligan City information officer, said Monday that the city could immediately get back on its feet as rehabilitation of damaged infrastructure was underway.
He said rehabilitation work was being done with the help of P60 million that President Benigno Aquino III gave during his visit here.
Anggot said repairing damaged facilities was easier than rebuilding the lives of residents, especially those who lost relatives in the deadly flash flood that Sendong triggered.
Thousands of residents remain in evacuation centers to this day but Anggot said the city government was finalizing their relocation to a permanent site.
The city government, he said, planned to move displaced residents from the evacuation centers to their new homes maybe by New Year or during the first weeks of January.
“The houses can be rebuilt but the psychological and emotional impact of the disaster is difficult to deal with,” he said.
As of Monday, 400 people had been confirmed dead in the Iligan floods following the retrieval of 14 more bodies in Kolambugan, Lanao del Norte, and 16 other drowning victims in Oroquieta City in Misamis Occidental.
“The death toll is continuously increasing every day. We believed that there are some victims still not retrieved more than a week since the floods hit the city,” Anggot said.
He said retrieval operations resumed Monday after it was temporarily suspended for Christmas.
Hundreds of volunteers, including some from the provinces of Lanao del Norte and Misamis Occidental, continue to look for remains buried in the thick mud or washed ashore.
“We have given up hope of finding any more survivors. Our thrust now is to find and retrieve other drowning victims,” Anggot said.
Meanwhile, in Cagayan de Oro City, Representative Rufus Rodriguez said residents of the second congressional district who were displaced by the floods may have to spend two more months in tent cities before they can move to their new homes, which are being built by the government.
Rodriguez said the construction of the houses for Sendong victims might be finished in February yet.
The houses are being built on a four-hectare lot in Barangay Gusa and on a 10-hectare area in Barangay Indahag.
Relocation sites for those who previously lived on the western bank of the Cagayan River have also been identified in barangays Lumbia and Calaanan, Rodriguez said.
The Jesuit-owned Xavier University has granted the government rights to its five-hectare property in Barangay Lumbia.
Cagayan de Oro City Councilor Nadya Emano said the city has also allocated nine hectares in Barangay Calaanan for the relocation of Sendong victims.
The property, she said, is part of the 64 hectares that the city government bought in 1996 for its resettlement program.
Emano said a Filipino-Chinese businessman, who wished to remain anonymous, has offered to bankroll the building of 300 houses in Calaanan for Sendong victims.
(With a report from JB R. Deveza, Inquirer Mindanao)
