Help for flooded Central Luzon provinces cost gov’t P134.9M

Aid given to seven Central Luzon provinces has cost the government at least P134.9 million with most of the funds coming from municipal and city governments and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Food and nonfood items worth at least P102.8 million were given to 223,445 families in 1,729 villages during Typhoon “Pedring,” which battered the region on Sept. 26.

Of that amount, P31.9 million came from the DSWD, P19.7 million from the provincial governments, P40.4 million from the municipal and city governments, P433,125 from barangays and P10.4 million from nongovernment organizations (NGOs).

The DSWD aid included contributions from congressmen, senators and former officials.

By province, assistance to Aurora totaled P1.6 million; Bataan, P4.4 million; Bulacan, P32 million; Nueva Ecija, P33.6 million; Pampanga, P22.9 million; Tarlac, P4.7 million and Zambales, P3.5 million.

Based on DSWD reports, the Bulacan provincial government reported spending P13.8 million on aid. The provincial governments of Nueva Ecija and Pampanga spent P3.3 million and P1.270 million.

More aid went to Calumpit (P9.04 million), Hagonoy (P5.9 million) and San Miguel (P3.1 million) in Bulacan; Cabanatuan City (P18.9 million), Jaen (P3.9 million), and San Leonardo (P3.8 million) in Nueva Ecija; City of San Fernando (P7.6 million) and San Simon (P5.8 million) in Pampanga; and Panique (P2.2 million) in Tarlac.

Emergency aid during Typhoon “Quiel” totaled P32.1 million, with P11.6 million coming from the DSWD, P10.2 million from provincial governments, P8.9 million from municipal and city governments and P1.5 million from NGOs.

The major sources of relief assistance were municipal and city governments but a number of them requested help from the DSWD because floods went beyond five feet and lasted almost two weeks, according to Maura de la Rosa, assistant regional director of DSWD.

Big volumes of rainfall, compounded by releases of water from dams and high tide at the mouth of the Pampanga River, caused serious flooding in communities along river banks and coasts, flood forecasters said.

Some local governments are pushing for bigger calamity funds beyond the 5 percent of internal revenue allotment allowed by the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010, De la Rosa said.

Although the two storms left a swath of destruction in a large part of Luzon, agriculture officials in other areas said the damage didn’t put the agriculture department’s target harvest off its track.