A month after declaring a State of Calamity all over the province due to tropical depression “Kristine,” the Sangguniang Panlalawigan has declared another State of Calamity because of the devastation brought by super typhoon “Pepito.”
In its regular session last Monday, Nov. 25, 2024, the provincial board led by Vice Governor Peter C. Cua enacted the measure upon the recommendation of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, based on the assessment that seven municipalities – Pandan, Caramoran, Viga, Panganiban, Bagamanoc, Baras, and Gigmoto – were severely affected by the storm.
The declaration allows the provincial government to utilize whatever is left of its disposable allocation in the Calamity Fund for relief operations and other disaster-related activities.
As it turns out, the funding available for disbursement by the administration of Governor Joseph C. Cua is miniscule, compared to the immense need to provide construction materials to the 7,818 families whose homes were destroyed and the 28,568 others whose abodes were damaged.
As of last week, according to the Local Finance Committee, the balance of the Quick Response Fund (QRF) is just over P9 million, of which only P4.5 million is available for use.
The PDRRM Council stated in its resolution that the amount could be utilized for the minor repair and clearing of district hospitals and the Provincial Health Office, water disinfection and rationing, hauling and distribution of relief goods, costs of running the Emergency Operations Center, clearing of the provincial capitol compound and offices, and clearing operations provincewide.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s turnover of P50 million financial assistance to the province for use in recovery and rehabilitation activities is certainly welcome but woefully inadequate.
To put things in proper perspective, the promise of the Department of Social Housing and Urban Development (DSHUD) to give P10,000 to families in Catanduanes whose houses were destroyed and P5,000 to those with damaged homes would need a total budget of P221 million.
Does the agency really have that much unutilized funds lying around?
And Catanduanes is not the only province where STY “Pepito” massed; there is Aurora and its neighboring provinces as well as those battered by the three previous tropical cyclones.
Even more preposterous is the canard being bandied around by mathematically challenged gubernatorial candidate that the Cua administration would use the P50 million to buy a sack of rice for every family affected by the typhoon.
With the cheapest 50-kilo bag of rice now costing about P1,800 each, the Marcos funding would buy just 27,777 bags, less than half of the quantity required for the total 59,323 families affected by the super typhoon.
The provincial government’s decision to utilize the P50 million for the procurement of GI sheets, plywood and GI nails for distribution to those who suffered much is the right one.
And it is in keeping with the shift in the disaster response’s focus from relief distribution to post-typhoon recovery and rehabilitation.
As the Malacanang assistance is not enough, the Cua administration has no choice but to hope that national agencies and organizations like the United Nations and Gawad Kalinga would be true to their word in providing the needed housing materials and alternative livelihood.
What is even more daunting is how the government can assist more than 13,777 abaca farmers and their families whose plantations have been wiped out by the storm. For the year or two when they have nothing to harvest, they will have to subsist on the government’s help and whatever they can grow on their farms.