By: Felipe V. Celino
ROXAS CITY, Capiz – Close to P1 billion worth of infrastructure, livestock, and fisheries were destroyed by typhoon Ursula in December 2019.
Reports from the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) indicated that P579,173,535 worth of fisheries were destroyed while P329,172,000 in infrastructures and P91,179,900 worth of livestock were also lost to the typhoon, a total of P999,525,435.
Meanwhile, 98,130 families in Capiz were affected by the typhoon while 13,809 houses were destroyed and 59,862 were damaged.
As of January 3, at least five persons died in the aftermath of the typhoon.
On the other hand, the Iloilo City government will give P300,000 each to 14 Local Government Units (LGUs) in Panay Island that were placed under state of calamity.
This, after the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council approved Jan. 3 a resolution to extend a total of P4.2 million in financial assistance to typhoon-affected LGUs.
The aid will be taken from the city’s Quick Response Fund (QRF) in Disaster Risk Reduction Management.
The recipients are Aklan province, and municipalities of Kalibo, Malay, and Ibajay; Capiz province, Roxas City, and Sigma town; Pandan, Caluya and Libertad in Antique; and Concepcion, Carles, Batad and Balasan in Iloilo.
“We were also a victim of calamity when Frank hit us in 2008, and a lot of other local government units helped us recover. It is but proper that we should also give back by helping the disaster-stricken LGUs,” Mayor Jerry P. Treñas said.
The financial assistance will be released after approval by the City Council.
Meanwhile, the Roxas City government will start validating on January 10, 2020 the number of houses that were either destroyed or damaged by Ursula.
Last week, Mayor Ronnie Dadivas formed a composite team that will undertake the validation.
The team is composed of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, City Social Welfare and Development Office, City Engineers Office, Roxas City Communications Group, Barangay Health/Social Workers(BHW/BSW), Day Care Worker and the Department of Interior and Local Government(DILG).
The composite team will go around 47 barangays to check and validate the true and correct data submitted by each barangays to the city government.
The validation will last for 15 days, from Monday to Saturday.
The mayor ordered the validation team to ensure the exact number of affected houses.
Based on the initial list, 7,736 houses were destroyed while 22,917 were damaged in Roxas City.
Dadivas said they will prioritize the destroyed houses because of limited funds.
