Iloilo sends P2M to typhoon victims

ILOILO CITY—The Iloilo provincial government will be sending P2 million in assistance to Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley, two worst-hit areas of Typhoon “Pablo.”

The officials and employees of the Home Mutual Development Fund (Pag-Ibig) in Eastern Visayas will be giving assistance to the victims of typhoon Pablo.

Iloilo Gov. Arthur Defensor convened an emergency meeting of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council on Thursday to finalize plans on providing P2 million in rehabilitation assistance to the two affected areas.

Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley will get P1 million each in assistance from the Iloilo provincial government.

Defensor also directed departments and offices in the provincial capitol to tone down their celebrations, provincial administrator Raul Banias said.

“No extravagant programs and presentations. We want to keep it simple,” Banias said.

Norlito Bautista, Iloilo City administrator, said celebration on Dec. 17 at the Iloilo City Hall would also be kept simple.

“What is important is that the employees can gather in our Christmas tradition,” Bautista said.

The personnel of Pag-Ibig in Eastern Visayas will be donating their own money to help the victims of Typhoon Pablo.

Paulino Talacay, Eastern Visayas regional head of Pag-Ibig, said they expect to raise close to P100,000 from the agency’s 115 personnel in the region.

Aside from the money, the Pag-Ibig personnel would also be donating clothes to typhoon victims, Talacay said on Friday.

“I think it’s not nice that we are having our party while our brothers in Mindanao are suffering due to Pablo. That is why, we have decided to raise funds and donate them to the victims,” he added.

Talacay said they would give their donation before Christmas “so our brothers and sisters in Mindanao will feel the spirit of Christmas.”

However, the Pag-Ibig regional office will still have their Christmas party next week but would keep their spending down.

In Iloilo, Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo has issued a circular to all parishes and lay organizations to gather donations.

Msgr. Meliton Oso, director of the Jaro Archdiocesan Social Action Center (Jasac), said the circular reminded the Catholic faithful that Western Visayas was also ravaged by Typhoon “Frank” on June 21, 2008.

“We feel a profound sense of solidarity with the victims of Typhoon Pablo because we were victims too. We are also thankful that we were spared despite being earlier projected to be in the direct path of the typhoon,” Oso told the Inquirer.

The donations will be channeled through the social action centers of parishes that were worst hit by the typhoon.

Oso said the Jasac has canceled their Christmas party and instead channel their budget to the fund drive, which would end on Dec. 31.