Thursday, June 26, 2008 Sarangani to utilize P20M calamity funds By Nelson C. Bagaforo
THE Provincial Board of Sarangani has declared the province in state of calamity, authorizing the Provincial Government to utilize at least five percent of its calamity fund to provide assistance to victims of flashfloods caused by Typhoon Frank (international codename: Fengshen).
The fund will also be used to rehabilitate provincial roads and other infrastructures damaged by the floods.
Vice Governor Steve Chiongbian Solon said private and business sector donors also extended relief assistance to at least 1,775 families affected by the floods in the coastal towns of Maasim, Maitum and Kiamba, and Alabel.
The Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC) placed the damage to property, crops, and infrastructure at P50 million. The figure is expected to rise as soon as other damage reports from the fields are consolidated.
Provincial Social Welfare and Development officer Hermelo Latoja on Wednesday said the province has a remaining P20-million in calamity funds.
"We will provide food and other relief assistance to victims of the flashfloods who are really hardly affected. Doon naman sa hindi masyado affected, we will implement the food for work scheme, where they have to help in the rehabilitation efforts before they will be provided with assistance," he told Sun.Star Davao in a telephone interview Wednesday.
He said PDCC shall move to convert relief activities into food-for-work after the next three days.
"We will mobilize the displaced families to rebuild their houses and improve their environment as part of our disaster management plan," Latoja said.
He added that relief assistance have been provided to evacuation centers in the towns hardest hit by the floods.
Vice Governor Solon, for his part, said the province has been receiving donations for the affected families.
Some donations like rice, by now about 600 sacks, canned goods, and used clothing for displaced families came from Petron Foundation, You Against Corruption and Poverty (Yacap), Smart Communications, ABS-CBN, Red Cross, Alcantara Foundation, and Senate President Manny Villar, according to Solon.
Even residents from Davao City and local church groups have been donating goods and used clothing.
Solon visited the towns of Maitum, Kiamba, and Maasim to ensure that the evacuees were taken cared of.
He presided over an emergency meeting of the PDCC in Alabel Sunday where he directed local disaster councils to ensure that evacuees don't go hungry in evacuation centers.
A "food caravan" was deployed Monday to Makima (Maitum-Kiamba-Maasim) side and two teams handled Sarangani's eastern side, Latoja said.
In Maitum, Latoja said most evacuees have returned to their homes.
The Municipal Disaster Coordinating Council of Kiamba, on the other hand, "was able to manage those families whose houses were partially or totally damaged."
"Relief operations in Alabel and the three other coastal towns affected by flashflood and heavy flooding will continue," Latoja said.
Latoja echoed Governor Miguel Dominguez's instruction to relief workers that "no one from the displaced families or any individual will be left hungry."
A disaster monitoring report issued by the PDCC Wednesday showed that flashfloods and big waves spawned by typhoon Frank across the coastal towns of Maitum, Kiamba, Alabel, and Maasim destroyed 415 houses made of light materials, with 247 houses damaged.
Big waves also destroyed a large fishing boat in Maitum and 10 other pump boats in Maasim.
In Barangay Lomuyon, Kiamba, two girls -- Jessamor Adom, 9, and Mary Jane Panatoc, 11 -- died "due to uprooted coconut trees" at the height of the flooding Saturday, the PDCC report said.
