990AM: Calamities came, but Pampanga still standing—Gov. Pineda

[jwplayer mediaid=”18908″]MANILA, Philippines—Pampanga was blessed despite the onslaught of  calamities that battered the province recently, Governor Lilia Pineda told Radyo Inquirer 990AM in an interview Tuesday.

“We were lucky. Calamities come and go, but  we Pampanguenos are still here,” declared Pineda after 247 of the 500 villages in Pampanga were submerged by flood due to rains brought about by tropical storm ‘Falcon’ last weekend.

Pampanga was declared under a state of calamity Monday after heavy and continuous rains flooded most of the towns in the province.

Pineda said that because of the cooperation of the people, the province, which will be celebrating its 440^th year anniversary in December, was able to stand up despite tragedies brought about by the destructive weather. “The people here are very cooperative, they help each other, and are very hard working; remember the Mt. Pinatubo eruption which occurred 20 years ago? That was harder.”

Pineda said that they estimated a partial damage of P300 million, and 5,000 hectares of agriculture land. She added that 500 meters of dike were damaged, so they needed P70 million for restoration. “It will take six to seven months to restore it but for now, we will set up  temporary sandbagging.”

She said that Pampanga has many river systems and was like a catch basin for water coming from nearby  towns like Aurora, Nueva Ecija, and Tarlac. “We are asking support from all the governors of nearby provinces to help repair the damaged dikes in the province,” she said..

“We’re starting to clear waterways clogged by water hyacinths. We will also restore dikes and conduct disaster preparedness maintenance so that this won’t happen again,” Pineda said.

For the full interview, listen to 990AM.