Sea gypsies known as “Badjaos” rummage through the debris after Typhoon Rammasun struck the coastal village of Bajaoan, in Batangas city, 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of Manila, Philippines Thursday, July 17, 2014. AP FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – As various government agencies send donations for the survivors of Typhoon “Glenda,” the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council assured that the funds used to purchase goods are not part of the Disbursement Acceleration Program.
NDRRMC spokesman Romina Marasigan said Tuesday afternoon that all donations that they received were from the yearly budgets of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Department of Health, local government units, and several non-government and government units.
“These are combined efforts, the donations are from their funds,” Marasigan said. “Every department or agency has allocated budget for disaster risk reduction and management.”
Marasigan added that the likes of DSWD and DOH have the mandate to allocate funds from their yearly budget and put them for disaster response and humanitarian assistance.
As of Tuesday, a total of P16,178,184.83 worth of relief goods and medicines were donated to the NDRRMC with P6,077,244 from the DSWD, P6,246,095.83 from the DOH, P2,950,492 from local government unit, and P904,353 from non-government organizations and government organizations.
“There’s no DAP here,” Marasigan said.
In the bulletin of the NDRRMC, “Glenda” affected a total of 330,433 families or 1,600,298 people with 97,055 families or 518,764 people still displaced.
Also, the number of fatalities did not rise from the Monday report with 97 people dead together with 460 people injured, and six people missing.
Marasigan added that no private firms have extended help to the survivors as the government has done a good job in humanitarian assistance.
“Usually they come in when the disaster is so large that the government could not handle it anymore,” Marasigan said. “They have not come in yet since the prepositioned aid that the government allocated is still sufficient.”
According to the NDRRMC, four regions have areas that have declared a state of calamity.
These are: Obando, Bulacan in Central Luzon; Taal, Cuenca, Santa Teresita, Laurel, Lemery, San Nicolas, Padre Garcia, Ibaan, Malvar, Batangas City in Batangas, Quezon, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal in Calabarzon; Naga City, Tigaon, and Bula in Camarines Sur, and Albay in Bicol; and Samar in Eastern Visayas.
Also, Marasigan added that there have been no reports of any casualty from Typhoon ” Henry.”
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