Eighty-one-year old Magdaleno Calumpag wakes up with his house already damaged after it was hit by a whirlwind in Barangay Suba, Danao City. (CDN PHOTO/TONEE DES[POJO)
City Councilor Roland Reyes said the city government will be constrained from releasing their cash aid because of the need to clarify the status of their occupancy on a private lot owned by the Almendras family.
Reyes, who is also the coordinator of the City’s Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, added the Almendras family is said to be in the process of negotiating with a private buyer for the sale of their property in Sitio Cambugraw, which was earlier used as a coal yard.
“If dili na gani sila makabalik sa area then ato na silang i-relocate (If they could not go back to the area, then we will relocate them),” he told Cebu Daily News in a telephone interview.
Reyes said the city government is set to release P5,000 cash aid to families who lost their homes to the whirlwind.
He said a smaller amount will be given to those with partially damaged homes.
The cash aid will be taken from the City Social Welfare and Development (CSWD) allocation, the amount of which he is not privy to.
Reyes said City Hall also has an approved disaster relief funds of P7 million this year which they could spend on the rehabilitation of damaged structures.
More than half of the allocation has remained unspent to date, he added.
A total of eight houses in Sitio Cambugraw, Barangay Suba, were totally damaged by the whirlwind, while 17 others were partially damaged, displacing a total of 98 families who were made to spend the night at the barangay’s covered court.
In the neighboring barangay of Taytay, the whirlwind also damaged eight houses and partially damaged 43 others.
Reyes said the affected families already returned to their homes on Tuesday.
A man estimated to be 50 years old, who was brought to the Danao City District Hospital after he complained of difficulty in breathing, has also been discharged from the hospital.