By GENALYN KABILING
THE government has set aside a Php13-billion contingency fund in the national budget that could be tapped to augment relief resources for provinces hit by typhoon Ompong.
Amid reports of typhoon damage to agriculture and infrastructure in some North Luzon provinces, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said the release of the contingency funds would require an approval from President Duterte.
At present, Pernia said the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) still has Php2.13 billion funds for disaster response efforts.
“On the funds available for rehabilitation for this disaster, there is a balance from the NDRRMC, it’s either sa balance of Php2.13 billion. And then to this can be added there’s a Php13 billion contingency fund in the GAA, which requires your approval,” Pernia said during the situation briefing with the President in Cagayan last Sunday.
“So 13 billion plus two billion, there’s about 15 billion fund for the calamity that has been wrought by Typhoon Ompong,” he added.
Reacting to Pernia’s report, the President stressed that the use of disaster relief funds must be free of corruption.
“Huwag lang ma-corrupt ‘yang pera, sir, sabihin ko lang,” Duterte told Pernia, director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
Education Secretary Leonor Briones later clarified that the government would not spend the entire contingency funds for Ompong relief and rehabilitation operations.
Briones cautioned that there might still be other calamities that could hit the country this year.
“If I may join you in that conversation, Mr. President, perhaps the 15 billion would not only be for this calamity, but for the calamities to follow for the rest of the year. It does not mean we’ll spend it all for Ompong,” she said in the same disaster relief meeting in Cagayan.
“You still have many letters in the alphabet until the end of the year,” he added.
Pernia agreed with Briones’ pronouncement. “That’s correct. So this is the funds available for the rest of 2018, Mr. President,” he said.
