Budget sought for disaster relief

Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto has called on Malacañang and Congress to start tweaking the proposed P2.226-trillion national budget to create space for post-calamity efforts.

This developed as Senate President Franklin Drilon announced that the Senate has made available P6 million from its savings to fund relief and rehabilitation efforts in provinces recently hit by disaster.

“There’s certainly a need for bigger DAP or Disaster Aid Projects funds. This is the kind of DAP that we need,” Recto said in a statement.

Recto said the proposed P7.5 billion 2014 allocation of the calamity fund might not be enough to underwrite reconstruction work in a “country which seems to be hit recently by every tragedy in the catalogue of calamities.”

“In the past 30 days alone, this country was hit by a 7.2-magnitude quake, a typhoon that left P3.2 billion in damages and a failed insurgent takeover of a major city which razed 10,160 homes to the ground,” Recto said.

Recto was referring to Tuesday’s tremor which toppled churches and buildings in Central Visayas, Typhoon “Santi” which displaced a million people in 76 towns and nine cities in Luzon, and last month’s attempt by rebel leader Nur Misuari to wrest control of Zamboanga City from the government.

“The result is that we need to help towns from Argao (Cebu) to Zamboanga to get back on their feet fast,” Recto said.

Recto said the proposed calamity fund allocation in the 2014 national budget is not enough to bankroll the repair or replacement of damaged public infrastructure.

“If we count the help which owners of burned houses in Zamboanga, or Santi-hit farmers in Pampanga, or small Bol-anon businessmen whose stores were destroyed will be needing, the total bill is way above the resources at hand,” Recto said.