Kristine damage reaches P4.36B

AERIAL INSPECTION Photo shows a helicopter carrying President Marcos over flooded rice fields in Batangas. —Marianne Bermudez

MANILA, Philippines — As damage reports continued to pour in from across the country, the government reported that damage to farms and schools caused by Severe Tropical Storm Kristine (international name: Trami) has so far reached P4.36 billion.

In its bulletin posted on Saturday, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said storm losses stood at P1.69 billion million as of Saturday, surging by over 1,000 percent from the P143.47 million in damage reported a day before.

The Department of Education, on the other hand, reported damage to school infrastructure has reached P2.67 billion as of Saturday, including P2.1 billion for reconstruction and P513 million for repairs.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara earlier said the agency has “quick response” funds for the repair of classrooms and school equipment.

This allocation would go to the repair of a total of 863 classrooms reported to be “totally damaged,” while schools have their own funding for “smaller repairs,” Angara said.

A total of 1,026 classrooms were reported to be “partially damaged” as of Saturday.

Angara said he was “deeply concerned” with the number of students affected by the class suspensions, which stood at about 19.5 million.

“We are collating the number of missed classes and [the number] of those who were forced to cancel classes … because we might reach a point that there are so many missed classes that we’re not able to recover them anymore since typhoons are becoming frequent,” Angara noted.

“We have a plan for that. We’re already studying how to resolve that … especially for those who are capable with internet connections,” he said on Thursday on the sidelines of an artificial intelligence conference.

Asked whether there would be weekend classes, Angara said in Filipino: “It depends on the principals and teachers and their schedule. We just have to be flexible.”

The DA, on the other hand, said Kristine affected 42,346 farmers in the regions of Cordillera, Ilocos, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western and Eastern Visayas and Soccsksargen.

Estimated farm losses

The volume of production loss is pegged at 108,266 metric tons (MT) spanning 37,590 hectares of agricultural areas.

“As field assessments continue, further damage and losses are expected in the affected regions,” the agricultural department added.

Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said on Friday that substantial losses in rice production are expected following the typhoons and weather phenomena that have hit the archipelago so far this year.

The damage to rice already reached more than 500,000 MT even before the onslaught of Kristine, said de Mesa, concurrently spokesperson for the DA.

Despite the projected 10 to 15 percent increase in vegetable prices, the DA assured the public that the country has ample supply of agricultural products.

So far, Kristine damaged P1.61 billion worth of rice, accounting for 95.15 percent of the overall damage. It wiped out 104,198 MT of rice, the majority of which are in reproductive and maturity stages.

High-value crops (P63.51 million), corn (P8.57 million), cassava (P6.55 million), livestock and poultry (P3.24 million) and farm structures (P3.24 million) sustained losses as well.

The DA is prepared to provide P531.72 million worth of farm inputs, including rice, corn and vegetable seeds, drugs and biologics for livestock and poultry through its regional offices.

It also deployed Kadiwa stores in affected areas.

For its part, the National Food Authority has bags of rice stocks for distribution to affected families by local governments, the Department of Social Welfare and Development and other relief agencies.

The DA already requested an additional P1 billion from the Department of Budget and Management to aid rehabilitation efforts in storm-hit areas, which it expects to be released in November.