BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
ILOILO City – From P27.4 billion, the proposed rehabilitation plan of Iloilo province has been slashed to P17.1 billion following a review.
The revalidated rehabilitation plan was recently resubmitted to the Cabinet Cluster on Rehabilitation (CCR) which, in turn, will endorse it to President Benigno Aquino III for approval, according to Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr.
“Once the President approves it, the money will be released,” the governor said.
The figure had been slashed because the number of affected houses in areas that storm surges hit when super typhoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) struck November last year also shrunk from 43,987 to 8,027, Defensor explained.
Some of the families whose houses were totally destroyed were already recipients of housing units donated by various non-government organizations, according to the governor.
“So from a proposed budget of P12 billion for resettlement, it went down to P2.4 billion,” Defensor said.
The final number of beneficiaries for the resettlement was determined through a two-week revalidation that the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (PDRRMO) conducted.
The final rehabilitation plan of the province covers five components:
- agriculture (P2.3 billion)
- infrastructure (P7.3 billion)
- social services (P2.7 billion)
- resettlement (P2.4 billion), and
- livelihood (P2.4 billion).
The P17.1-billion rehabilitation plan is a consolidation of proposals for typhoon-related rehabilitation programs of various government agencies like the cash-for-work program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, livelihood program of the Department of Science and Technology, and coral reefs rehabilitation program of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, among others.
Defensor presented the original rehabilitation plan to the CCR and to the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery headed by former senator Panfilo Lacson on July 5 in Manila.
Based on the Post Disaster Needs Assessment, Lacson said during a visit to Iloilo last month, the government had allotted a total of P104.644 billion for distribution to 171 typhoon-hit areas.
Out of the said amount, he said, Western Visayas would get a big chunk.
“Yolanda”, one of the deadliest Philippine typhoons on record, killed over 6,000 people.
In Western Visayas, it left 294 people dead and 2,068 injured as of the April 2014 data of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council./PN
