THE 18th Davao City Council approved on suspended rules on Tuesday, January 30, the financial calamity fund worth P4.5 million to help those affected by Mayon volcano eruption in Albay province.
The council gave legislative authority to Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte to utilize a portion of the city's Quick Response Fund (QRF) to extend assistance to the municipalities of Camalig, Daraga, Guinobatan, Malilipot, Sto. Domingo, Bagacay, and cities of Ligao, Tabaco, and Legaspi at P500,000 each.
Duterte-Carpio informed the council that the eruption of Mount Mayon has affected a total of 20,477 families (79,757 persons).
However, the passing of the ordinance was not smooth since one of the councilors, Diosdado Mahipus, questioned why Davao City will be giving the same amount to a city with only one barangay affected.
He is referring to Bacacay City, which has 137 families affected.
"I fully understand the good intention to help the municipality if there is only one barangay affected. The point that I am trying to raise here, this money comes from the taxpayers of Davao City. This is not the taxpayers' money of the Republic of the Philippines. If you really look at what the Constitution requires, the government funds should be used for public purpose. We start wondering if giving dole outs is still public purpose, especially so if the dole out is not anymore enjoyed by taxpayers of the locality where the taxes derived," he said.
Mahipus added that he was concerned with how the money will be spent.
He said it is the responsibility on the part of the lawmakers to protect the people's money of the city of Davao.
"I wish that we should start rationalizing how we give fund assistance because even if it's already budgeted by lawmakers by the council and it's all ready for disbursement, we have to be very extra careful in spending this money which is earned by the use of sweat, blood and tears of our people," Mahipus added.
"They (Dabawenyos) pay the taxes, and we are giving assistance of P500,000 to the city which has only one barangay affected and I think that barangay is even far from Mount Mayon, and they are happy to see Mount Mayon having lava fountaining quote and quote instead of feeling dreadful, they are enjoying why are we giving P500,000 to them? I urge you to come up with standards because it appears that we have not come up with standards for the longest time that we have given help. I am not against this measure but please consider this Juan de la Cruz of the City of Davao and not of the Republic of the Philippines. Please look at this I hope you could come up with standards now," he said.
Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office head Emmanuel Jaldon said the DRRM office will come up with a standard way to calculate, especially doing assessments to other local government units.
Davao City Councilor Danilo Dayanghirang also explained to Mahipus that the people were not "happy" with the eruption; some have reported to have difficulty breathing due to the ash fall.
This is not the first time that the city gave assistance to areas affected by calamities.
Last year, Davao City extended P5 million to Marawi City and another P8 million to areas affected by Typhoon Urduja in the Visayas in December.
Davao City Budget Officer Ermilinda Gallego assured that the City has enough funds for this year, having P113,659,663 worth of QRF allotted for 2018.
Even with the deduction of P4.5 million for the Mayon volcano eruption victims, the City will still have a remaining amount of P109,159,663 as QRF.