Calamity assistance due to El Nin?o: LGUs to get P3 milion

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu provincial government will give P3 million each to its towns and cities as financial assistance, following the Provincial Board’s declaration of a state of calamity due to the devastating effects of the El Niño phenomenon in the province.

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia had also issued an executive order (EO) putting the entire province of Cebu under state of calamity due to the “persistent rise in temperature” and after the ongoing dry spell “severely depleted our water resources, crucial for agriculture, livestock and aquaculture, negatively impacting Cebuanos who rely in these resources.”

In her EO, the governor also said the presence of El Niño has intensified the drought conditions in the entire province and the “intense heat has led to a dramatic increase in electricity demand, resulting in rotational outages that further exacerbate the suffering of Cebuanos”

With the governor and the PB’s declaration of the state of calamity, the local government units (LGUs) of Cebu can now access their calamity funds or quick response fund to undertake mitigating efforts to address the effects of El Niño in their respective localities

The P3-million financial assistance pledged by the Capitol, on the other hand, will also be used by the LGUs in their undertakings to address the effects of El Niño.

Garcia announced the financial assistance during her meeting with the mayors, municipal agriculturists, provincial agriculturist, as well as officials and representatives from different government agencies like the Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Labor and Employment, National Food Authority, and Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation last Thursday.

During the meeting, Garcia requested the mayors that should they give assistance to their constituents, it would be better if food packs, instead of giving cash, and other necessities are what would be handed out.

Based on DA’s consolidated data from the 40 LGUs under the Province of Cebu, 13,589 farmers are already affected by the El Niño phenomenon and while damaged agriculture is already at P194 million.

Aside from the P3 million for all LGUs, those mayors who attended the meeting had their LGUs receive P3 million more as a “reward”, with the amount to be used for their infrastructure projects.

The offices of the board members present during the meeting would also get P3 million each as “legislative assistance” for their respective constituents. (CEBU NEWS)