PALAYAN CITY, Philippines – The provincial government of Nueva Ecija has been chosen as recipient of a P203-million from the Spanish government in recognition of the local government’s capacity to respond to disaster and calamity situations and implement rehabilitation programs.
The grant, the first of its kind involving disaster risk reduction, was extended by the Spanish Cooperation Agency for Development (AECID) which entered into a project partnership agreement with the Local Government Academy – an attached agency of the Department of Interior and Local Government – to strengthen local governments’ disaster preparedness and response.
Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Umali said the grant will be used to fund the training component, infrastructure and livelihood components of the program in select cities and municipalities of the province. He thanked the Spanish government for extending assistance to the province and the Philippines which, he said, both have historical ties with Spain after whom they were named after.
“The Philippines was known as Las Islas Filipinas with Luzon as Nueva Ecija but Nueva Ecija was later downsized into a province,” he said.
Nueva Ecija was one of three provinces considered for the grant assistance, the others were Pangasinan and Benguet.
Umali said the program will be implemented in partnership with the Office of Project Development Service of the DILG and the provincial office which constitute the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management project steering committee.
Various projects will be undertaken in the pilot municipalities of Carranglan, Llanera, Rizal and Pantabangan and in San Jose City aimed to strengthen their respective DRRM and response, improve inter-municipal networking, raise disaster risk reduction awareness and provide support and access to basic social and productive infrastructures and jobs, Umali said.