Catanduanes execs thank Aquino for cash aid to poor

Benigno Aquino III

BATO, Catanduanes—This time, it was President Benigno Aquino III’s turn to receive plaudits from local officials for his flagship programs and priority projects.

“The people of Catanduanes are really feeling the positive effects of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program,” Representative Cesar Sarmiento said at Wednesday’s opening of a Doppler radar station here presided over by the President.

Sarmiento said the island’s economy would get a boost in the next few years as the paving of a circumferential road neared completion.

He added that the Aquino administration’s conditional cash transfer program is pouring in P20 million a month, benefiting 15,000 poor families in all 11 towns of the island.

Governor Joseph Cua, on the other hand, thanked the administration for the Doppler radar station, which, he said, would help Catanduanes mitigate the effects of typhoons.

In his speech at the inauguration of the Doppler station, the President said he would consider the request of local officials for funding for seawalls, river control dikes, and other disaster-mitigation projects for coastal villages and other areas exposed to storm surges and severe flooding.

Meanwhile, Regional Director Landrico Dalida of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astonomical Administration said four new employees would join the depleted work force of the Virac office of the weather bureau.

Dalida said the new hires are three permanent weathermen and an information technology specialist.