MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/18 December) –The Bukidnon Sangguniang Panlalawigan last week approved a resolution authorizing Gov. Alex Calingasan to donate a total of P2 million for victims of typhoon Pablo in Compostela Valley and Davao Oriental.
The amount, which was charged against the province’s calamity fund, is intended for “the dead and homeless” as identified and validated by the local government units concerned.
Bukidnon has a calamity fund of P125.62 million.
“Pablo” left six dead, 14 injured, and one missing in Bukidnon. It affected a total of 45,932 families or 213, 886 persons in 220 of the province’s 464 barangays.
Bukidnon was placed under a state of calamity by the provincial board on December 6.
The provincial board approved the donation “notwithstanding that the province experienced the same typhoon,” calling it a “humanitarian act.”
The board cited that President Benigno S. Aquino III declared a state of national calamity “giving opportunities to other provinces to extend help to neighboring areas devastated by calamities.”
Majority Floor leader Nemesio Beltran Jr. told MindaNews earlier that Bukidnon would use its calamity fund for relief operations.
He added that if the national government would extend assistance from its calamity fund to the province, the amount will be used for infrastructure and aid to those whose farms were damaged. (Walter I. Balane/MindaNews)
