BAGUIO City Mayor Mauricio Domogan revealed the P91 million available calamity fund of the local government this year is not sufficient to restore the damage inflicted by the onslaught of Typhoon “Ompong” (Mankhut).
The local chief executive reported public infrastructure in the city suffered a total of over P404 million worth of damages due to the typhoon, thus, the need to convene the members of the Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (LDRRMC) to prioritize the utilization of the available calamity funds while awaiting whatever the National Government will apportion as the city’s share from the earmarked funds from concerned government agencies and the Office of the President.
“We will have to work on the prioritization of the projects that will be funded from the available calamity funds because we will not spend the whole amount for the damages suffered by the city’s public infrastructure so that we will have available funds to use for future calamities that might visit the city until the end of the year,” Domogan said.
He emphasized the P91-million calamity fund for the whole year and should not be exhausted in a single situation. He said that proper use of the fund should be studied since there are still a number of typhoons that are expected to prevail in the city in the coming months.
Domogan added the declaration of four regions, including the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), under state of calamity by President Rodrigo Duterte is a welcome development because the National Government will surely provide the needed funding assistance to the affected local governments in terms of recovery and rehabilitation.
Domogan claimed not all of the calamity fund will be spent; 70 percent should be earmarked for prevention and mitigation projects while the remaining 30 percent will be made available for quick response initiatives, especially during the onslaught of natural calamities.
Concerned offices of the local government that are also members of the LDRRMC are now going around the city’s 128 barangays to assess and validate the reported damages to private and public property that were inflicted by the wrath of Typhoon Ompong to be able to come out with a detailed report on the actual damages suffered by the city from the natural calamity. (PR)