Bohol gets P2.4B in new quake funds

INTERIOR Secretary Mar Roxas hands over a check for P2.4 billion to Bohol Gov. Edgar Chatto. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

MARIBOJOC, Bohol—Interior Secretary Mar Roxas has turned over P2.4 billion in additional funds to the provincial government to either rebuild or repair government offices and other infrastructure that were destroyed or damaged when Bohol province was hit by a

7.2-magnitude earthquake in October last year.

Alfonso Damalerio, Bohol provincial administrator, said the funds would benefit 41 towns and the capital, Tagbilaran City.

He said the funds would be used on health centers, municipal halls, civic centers, public markets and other government facilities destroyed or damaged by the quake.

Of the amount, P80 million would be used to retrofit the Bohol provincial capitol and P114 million to repair the city hall of Tagbilaran.

Roxas was in Tagbilaran on June 6 to turn over a check for the funds to Bohol Gov. Edgar Chatto.

The amount is on top of the P1.3 billion that was initially given by the national government to the province.

More than 200 people died when the quake struck Bohol on Oct. 15, 2013, destroying or damaging houses, churches, schools, government offices and public infrastructure.

But eight months after the quake, the province has fully recovered, said Damalerio.

He said the province’s tourism industry had bounced back and a sign of this was an 80-percent increase in hotel accommodations from April to May.

The province is currently preparing for the Sandugo Festival in July, an annual feast that commemorates the Treaty of Friendship between Bohol chieftain Datu Sikatuna and Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legaspi on March 16, 1565, through a blood compact.

“There will be a whole month of celebration,” Damalerio said in a phone interview.

He said the province was also building permanent shelters for earthquake victims with the help of the group Habitat for Humanity.