The Cebu provincial government is willing to use donations received from private institutions and persons to help shoulder the costs of repairing earthquake-damaged infrastructure in the province.
Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III said the P7,002,000 will be used to help repair schools and churches declared as heritage sites.
He said they can also be used to defray expenses of local government units whose buildings were damaged by the quake.
“If it’s just minor then they can probably handle the costs themselves since they have their own disaster relief management (DRM) funds,” Davide said.
SM Prime Holdings Inc. donated P5 million while Sacred Heart Parish Association and Albay province each donated half a million pesos and Asociacion Benevola de Cebu Inc. donated P1 million.
Calamity fund
Part of the fund will also be used to help in shouldering the costs of repairing several province-owned infrastructure.
Elsewhere, the Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) will soon hold operations inside two 40-feet-long container vans inside the Capitol compound.
Provincial disaster management council chief Neil Sanchez said Governor Davide agreed to the purchase of the vans after their office in the Baex Building sustained damage from the quake.
Sanchez said he proposed to source funds from the Capitol’s remaining P95 million calamity fund.
“I’m very confident that the Provincial Board will support this move. We can just renovate the vans and place windows and other essentials,” he said.
Tight budget
He said the container vans will be situated beside the Provincial Information Office (PIO) near the compound’s parking lot.
The province will also buy equipment and other items needed for disaster preparedness, Provincial General Services Office (PGSO) chief Eva Encabo said.
Sanchez, meanwhile said that Cebu still has a “long way to go” in terms of its readiness for disaster incidents due to lack of equipment coupled with a tight budget for the department.
In its 2013 annual budget, the Capitol allocated P108 million for disaster preparedness.
“We still have to divide that with the social welfare, health, engineering and other offices,” Sanchez said. /Victor Anthony V. Silva and Peter L. Romanillos, Correspondents