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MANILA – The House of Representatives will seek to increase the calamity fund by 2021 by at least P5 billion, which will be used to rebuild areas devastated by the recent series of typhoons.
In a statement, House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco said the House will propose the increase during the bicameral conference on the proposed P4.506 trillion national budget for 2021.
The two houses will meet after the Senate passes its version of the proposed budget.
According to Velasco, there is a need to increase the calamity fund next year, especially since the House passed its version of the budget before Typhoons Quinta, Rolly and Ulysses wreaked havoc on the country.
“Given the tremendous damage caused by these successive strong typhoons, it is imperative that we increase the calamity fund in next year’s spending plan. We have to help our people rebuild their lives and their communities, ”he said.
He also said that according to the reports of the concerned agencies, the total damage caused by the three typhoons to infrastructure and agriculture is now P35 billion.
In the budget presented by President Rodrigo Duterte to Congress in August, the catastrophe fund for 2021 was set at 20,000 million pesos, of which 5,000 million will go to funds for the reconstruction of Marawi and 6,250 million pesos for the rapid response funds from six agencies. .
Of the P6.25 billion, P2 billion will go to the Department of Education, P1.25 billion to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, P1 billion to the Department of Agriculture, P1 billion to the Department of Public Works and Roads, P500 million to the Department of Health and 500 million pesos to the Department of National Defense-Office of Civil Defense.
That’s a total of P11.25 billion that is specifically allocated, leaving a balance of P8.75 billion that President Duterte could use to help victims of calamities and other disasters. That balance is not even enough to rebuild Bicol, which was barely hit (sic) by Typhoon Rolly, ”Velasco said.
“Alternatively, we can allocate the additional money in the budgets of the agencies involved in rebuilding and helping the victims of the typhoon,” he added.
Velasco said there are enough appropriations in the proposed budget from which the necessary funds could be drawn.
Duterte on Tuesday night put the island of Luzon, home to about half of the country’s 108 million people, in a state of calamity due to a series of cyclones, the last of which caused the worst flooding in years. and left dozens of dead.
A state of calamity will allow local officials to tap into emergency funds and impose a price freeze on commodities.
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