Mar in Leyte to turn over P.8-B rehab fund checks

ORMOC CITY, Philippines – Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas will be in Leyte today and tomorrow to personally turn over to mayors of various towns some P800 million worth of checks representing part of the national government’s reconstruction assistance for local infrastructure badly damaged by Typhoon Yolanda.

Pedro Noval Jr., Region 8 director of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, said Roxas’ first stop is Palo town where he will meet with Mayor Remedios Petilla and the mayors of neighboring towns like Tanauan, Tolosa, and Dulag.

Noval said the funds would be for the repair of the provincial capitol building, municipal or city halls, public markets, and civic centers of the Yolanda-devastated localities.

In Palo, Roxas is also meeting with representatives of various business chambers in the region, according to engineer Robert Castañares, governor of the Eastern Visayas Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Castañares said the business chambers hope to enlist Roxas’ help in accessing funding to rehabilitate their businesses, especially from the Asian Development Bank.

This afternoon, Roxas is scheduled to be in Baybay City to meet Mayor Carmen Cari and the town mayors in the fifth district. He will be in Ormoc City tomorrow morning.