MANILA, Philippines — The NDRRMC on Thursday admitted to erroneously reporting that damage to crops by Typhoon Ulysses (international name Vamco) had reached P540 billion as showed in its November 26 report that had since been taken down.
Usec. Ricardo Jalad, the agency's executive director, joined the regular Laging Handa briefing earlier today where upon reporting the said figure, he too had hoped that he read it wrong.
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"Dito naman sa Ulysses, mas malaki ang damage reflected dito. I hope nagkamali kami rito, but nakalagay dito ay P540 billion," he said, as showed in an official transcript by the Presidential Communications Operations Office.
True enough, the 8 a.m. report on NDRRMC's website reflected the cost, including a breakdown per region.
It has since been taken down and replaced with figures showing that the aftermath of Ulysses had instead left P4.7 billion in damage to agriculture.
Sought for comment, NDRRMC spokesperson Mark Timbal told Philstar.com that the said numbers were a result of a clerical error committed by the agency's operations team.
"The figures reported to the OpCen today were erroneously identified in the billions count when they were actually still in the millions," he said in an exchange. "We apologize for this inadvertent mix-up."
The report in question, for example, showed Cagayan Region sustaining over P248 billion in damage, Bicol with more than P158 billion and MIMAROPA with some P56.4 billion.
This would have meant that the extent of damage to the sector surpassed that of Super Typhoon "Yolanda" (Haiyan) in 2013 at P35 billion, the worst to hit the Philippines particularly Eastern Visayas.
Timbal admitted that while the numbers were detailed and not only estimates, such were misread that eventually led to "faulty computations."
The updated version now showed the top three regions with the highest cost of damage to crops: Central Luzon with P1.3 billion, Cagayan with P1.2 billion and CAR with P468 million.
Info gathering, other costs
In the same exchange, the NDRRMC spokesperson explained the agency's process on coming up with its reports.
Timbal said the figures are a result of details gathered from its regional disaster response offices, as well as government agencies involved in the efforts.
"These reports, sent on a daily basis, are reviewed in the operations center, consolidated and published via the situation reports," he said.
In total, Ulysses had so far caused P15.5 billion in damage, both to agriculture (P4.7 billion) and infrastructure (P10.7 billion).
Cagayan stood as the region worst-hit by the typhoon, sustaining P6.1 billion, followed by CALABARZON with P3.04 billion and Central Luzon with P2.3 billion.
Fatalities have remained at 73, as well as missing persons at 19, but the number of injured have climbed to 83.
Ulysses affected over 4.2 million individuals across eight regions, of which, 104,691 are still in evacuation centers.
Its onslaught, together with Super Typhoon "Rolly" and Typhoon "Quinta," had led President Rodrigo Duterte to place the entire Luzon under a state of calamity.
The agriculture department in a press briefing today also reported that per its November 18 assessment, the three strong typhoons had caused a combined P12.47 billion in damage.