Davao del Sur pushes for declaration of state of calamity due to dry spell

DIGOS CITY—Davao del Sur Gov. Claude Bautista on Saturday said he was supporting a resolution passed by the province’s mayors’ league, which urged the Sangguniang Panlalawigan to declare a state of calamity due to the dry spell.

Although he did not cite actual data on damages, Bautista said the dry spell had already affected a large number of farmers.

“There are hundreds of farmers suffering already,” he said, adding that rains remained scarce.

In Matanao town alone, some 500 hectares of crops had already been damaged due to the lack of rains, according to acting Mayor Elmer Javelona.

Bautista said the problem was so serious that he allocated P300 million to initially help farmers survive the drought.

In General Santos City, the city agriculturist’s office (CAO) said it was not pushing for the declaration of a state of calamity yet despite the ongoing dry spell.

Merlinda Donasco, city agriculturist, said although crop damages had reached P37.6 million, it was still not enough to place the city under a state of calamity.

Such declaration, to be made by the city council, would authorize Mayor Ronnel Rivera to draw funds from the calamity fund to help farmers beleaguered by the dry spell.

Donasco said the extent of the damage wrought by the dry spell, which affected the city in early January, fell short of the requisite of 20 percent crop damage or the number of affected farmers.

She said based on data, only six percent of the farmers in the city had been affected by the dry spell so far. This translates to 623 persons and a total of 1,069.9 hectares of rice, corn and high-value crops such as mango, coconut, banana and vegetables.

“This is way beyond the 20 percent required by law,” she said.

She said to mitigate the impact of the dry spell, the CAO had been conducting campaign for the planting of alternative and drought-resistant crops, such as watermelons.

In North Cotabato, which had so far suffered P590 million in crop damages, Gov. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza said there was no need to declare another state of calamity either because the province was technically still under it following man-made and natural calamities last year.

But Mendoza clarified that local government units in areas affected by the dry spell could declare one so they would be able to use their calamity funds.

But this did not mean the provincial government would not be helping, she said.

“We will step in if their funds run out,” Mendoza said. RC