Bogo City ready for rehab

Bogo City Mayor Celestino “Junie” Martinez Jr. said he has no complaints on the way the Cebu provincial government handled the relief operations on areas devastated by supertyphoon Yolanda.

“We received the relief goods from the Capitol. More or less, I can say, as of this moment that we already received sufficient goods for affected families in Bogo City,” Martinez told Cebu Daily News.

Martinez said he doesn’t want to interfere in Medellin Mayor Ricardo Ramirez’s complaint against the Capitol over the appropriation of relief goods to the municipality.

“No comment for that. I’m out of that issue,” he said.

Ramirez has been complaining that Medellin did not receive some of the relief items stated in the delivery receipts, and some arrived in his town two days after these were released by Capitol.

Ready for rehab

Martinez said the relief goods from the Capitol were entrusted to Bogo City officials.

For now, Martinez said, they are urging residents of Bogo City to rebuild their homes and surrounding areas in exchange of food packs.

The damage caused by supertyphoon Yolanda in Bogo City was pegged at P700 million. About P32.5 million from their unspent calamity funds accumulated in the last three years will be spent on the rehabilitation works, said Logarta.

Phase I of their rehabilitation works meant employing 2,200 persons at P150 each for six days.

Phase II or their “food for work program” started Monday and will continue until Wednesday, this time allowing women to work four hours a day to clean the vicinity of their homes, roads, coastal areas and public elementary and high schools. A total of 6, 580 participated in exchange for food packs of three kilos of rice, canned goods and noodles.

Phase III includes the allocation of P30 million in calamity funds for the rehabilitation of the city’s economic enterprises. /Ador Vincent S. Mayol, Reporter