ILOILO – The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) recommended that Iloilo be declared under a state of calamity due to massive flooding and the destruction this brought to the province’s agriculture, infrastructure, people’s livelihood, businesses, and industries.
PDRRMC, chaired by Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr., convened on Wednesday. Data presented at the meeting showed the province’s agriculture sector incurring multimillion-peso losses (P705,765,801.55) with the following breakdown:
* rice – P203,654,533.15
* high-value crops – P80,644,240
* corn – P649,151.40
* livestock and poultry – P23,820,940
* fisheries – P178,966,937
A declaration of a state of calamity allows the programming or reprogrammig of funds for the repair and safety upgrading of public infrastructures and facilities, and the grant of no-interest loans to sectors most affected by the calamity.
According to Dr. Jerry Bionat, head of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO), the criteria for a declaration of a state of calamity had been met.
“Twenty municipalities and more than 15 percent of the population or communities were affected,” he said.
His office recorded 177,111 families (672,497 individuals) adversely affected. This is 40.16 percent of the province’s 2,051,899 total population.
Damaged houses, on the other hand, reached 9,990 – 9,447 partially damaged and 543 totally damaged.
The Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act defines a state of calamity as “a condition involving mass casualty and/or major damages to property, disruption of means of livelihoods, roads and normal way of life of people in the affected areas as a result of the occurrence of natural or human-induced hazard.”
Under the law, the declaration of a state of calamity imposes price caps on basic necessities and prime commodities and requires agencies to monitor and stop overpricing, profiteering and hoarding of food, medicines and fuel.
The 20 towns affected and the percentages of their population displaced were the following: Leganes (21.20 percent), Zarraga (70.80 percent), Bingawan (100 percent), Pototan (21.45 percent), Dumangas (45.57 percent), Anilao (100 percent), Banate (65.3 percent), Dingle (25.55 percent), San Enrique (100 percent), Barotac Nuevo (40.05 percent), Barotac Viejo (72.18 percent), Ajuy (100 percent), Sara (100 percent), Lemery (100 percent), San Rafael (100 percent), San Dionisio (87.60 percent), Batad (100 percent), Estancia (46.50 percent), Balasan (100 percent), and Carles (100 percent).
Eight towns already declared a state of calamity – Sara, Ajuy, Batad, Lemery, Passi City, San Enrique, Zarraga, and San Dionisio.
The province’s casualties mostly by drowning in floodwaters rose to six. They were the following:
* Florentino Dema-ala, 62, of Barangay Ardemil, Sara
* J-Boy Reyes, 16, of Barangay Apologista, Sara
* Nelson Edama, 47, of Barangay Tady, Sara
* Ernesto Pamplona Jr., 47, of Barangay Tugas, Lemery
* Alfred Osano, 41, of Barangay Taguhangin, Ajuy
* Jhon Libo, 36, of Barangay Aglalana, Passi City
Memorandum Order No. 60, Series of 2019 of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management council set the guidelines for the declaration of a state of calamity:
* at least 15 percent of the forecasted affected population based on science-based projection are in need of emergency assistance;
* at least 30 percent of the means of livelihood on agricultural, business, and industrial sectors are affected;
* damage to critical and lifeline infrastructure/facilities such as major roads and bridges, power stations, potable water supply systems, and telecommunication facilities;
* widespread destruction of fishponds, crops, poultry and livestock.
* disruption of lifeline such as food chain, electricity, potable water system, other transport systems, communication system, access to health service, and other related systems that cannot be restored with one week, or in the case for highly-urbanized areas where restoration of the above lifelines cannot be done within twenty-four hours
* significant degradation to environment and natural resources based on the recommendations of government agencies/PN
