A month for city’s mountain brgys to recover from Ruby

CEBU, Philippines - It will take a month for farmers in the city to recover from the damage caused by typhoon Ruby, the city agriculturist’s office said yesterday.

“I think it would take one month siguro from now ang recovery…  Dako siya’g damage kay ang hangin man gud naa siya sa ground nag-agi. (And) it stayed longer in the area, mao nga dako gyud ang damage,” said city agriculturist Joey Baclayon.

Councilor Dave Tumulak, head of the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, has pegged the damage to crops and livestock in mountain barangays at P36 million. 

The council reported that damage to crops in 21 of the 34 mountain barangays here reached P34, 584,450.

 Meanwhile, damage to livestock in Barangays Taptap, Malubog, Cambinocot and Sudlon reached P149,500.

 Baclayon noted that temperature in the mountain barangays at that time was very low.

 “Not really sa katugnaw… of course, sa ulan nga kuan pud siya gud (heavy). Of course, when I was there after the typhoon, the temperature was down to 18 degrees celsius so tugnaw gyud,” Baclayon said.

He said that one week before typhoon Ruby made landfall in the Philippines, the city agriculture department already met with the farmers here to orient them on what to do in the event the city would be hit directly.

Earlier forecasts had the typhoon traversing Central Visayas but Ruby subsequently changed paths to southern Luzon as it came nearer the country.

“One week before, ato nana silang gi-gather atong mga farmers, atong Cebu City Farmers Federation, as well as the barangy officials kay para sad matudloan atong mag-uuma unsaon paghipos. Usa na (place them in) high ground. In fact wala mi mo-recommend nga sa ubos, wala pud sa taas kay ang hangin pud, mid elevation gyud,” he said.

 Baclayon assured that the city government will provide assistance to the estimated 500 farmers affected by the typhoon and will continue to coordinate with the Department of Agriculture for additional aid.

His office will give P5 million worth of input products to the farmers such as seedlings, fertilizers and equipment, which are supposed to be used during El Niño. He said the city might just allocate another budget once El Niño strikes.

 Another aid for farmers is the zero interest loan program, which will be implemented on the first quarter of 2015.

The city government has allotted P5 million for the program, which was supposed to be implemented before the year ends but the city ran out of time to process the papers, including the Memorandum of Agreement and farmers’ certification.

 “Some problems of documentations like katong ilahang requirement kinahanglan i-accredit sa city ang mga farmers. Gi-process na namo pero because of the time wala gyud siya maapas,” he said earlier. – (FREEMAN)