Palace seeks additional P19B for ‘Yolanda’ rehab

Citing climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction as among his administration’s “priority investments” in 2016, President Benigno Aquino III has asked Congress to approve his budget proposal of an additional P18.9 billion to bankroll the Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Plan for the survivors of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” in Eastern Visayas.

In his budget message to the Senate and House of Representatives, the President also called for the release of another P25.6 billion to “complete our (housing) coverage of the 205,128 victims of Yolanda (international name: Haiyan,” which ravaged the region in November 2013.

“Through Typhoon Yolanda, we have seen how the climate’s ‘new normal’ has wrought unimaginable suffering to our people,” he pointed out.

Mr. Aquino said the government “owed it to them to hasten and boost our [disaster] rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts.”

He noted that “the government has so far released a total of P87.4 billion since 2013 to provide housing and livelihood assistance for victims, as well as to rehabilitate damaged infrastructure and facilities.”

An undisclosed number of Yolanda survivors will also benefit from the expanded conditional cash transfer program, the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

“For 2016, we propose P62.7 billion to benefit 4.6 million poor households. This will also support the ongoing update of the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction, which is critical, especially after the extensive destruction brought by Supertyphoon Yolanda,” the President said.

P59.8B for flood control

He said government “investments in disaster risk management have so far strengthened the resilience of communities most vulnerable to calamities.”

“For one, (the P3-trillion national budget for 2016) provides P59.8 billion—from merely P14 billion in 2010—to enable the Department of Public Works and Highways to continue to construct flood-control facilities, especially in the 18 major river basins and watersheds.

“So far, 14.5 percent of the total areas within the priority river basins are already protected from floods, from 12.8 percent in 2011,” he said.

He said “this will further increase to 19.7 percent by 2016.”

Reforestation of 1.5M ha

The President also reported that his administration planned to complete its six-year National Greening Program with P10.2 billion, almost 10 times larger than its budget in 2011, to wrap up the reforestation of 1.5 million hectares by 2016.

“We also saw it fit to increase the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund under our term to provide ample funding to address the new normal of climate change: From P2 billion in 2010 to a whopping P38.9 billion under the 2016 budget,” he said.

The budget “provides a total of P5.7 billion in Quick Response Funds under the budgets of key implementing agencies,” he added.