Capitol to release P1M cash aid to Ormoc City

THE Cebu Provincial Government is set to hand over next week a P1 million aid to the Ormoc City Government, to help the city manage the effects of the 6.5 earthquake which hit the area last July.

Provincial Treasurer Emmanuel Guial said on Tuesday that he along with the Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) are finalizing the documents needed for the release of the funds.

The documents would include the declaration of a state of calamity in Ormoc City and a Cebu Provincial Board (PB) resolution last August 29 which authorized Gov. Hilario Davide III to donate the calamity aid.

A strong, magnitude 6.5 earthquake, followed by an equally strong aftershock at magnitude 5.4, jolted Ormoc City and its neighboring areas last July 6.

Earlier, Capitol also donated P2 million to the town of Kananga, Leyte located 19 kilometers north of Ormoc, which also suffered infrastructure damage when the two quakes hit the region.

“Initially, it was only Kananga who will be granted the calamity aid but Ormoc City Mayor (Richard) Gomez asked assistance from the governor who sought to process it right away,” said Guial.

Gomez reportedly told Davide that at least 2,000 residents from the city’s mountain barangays were ‘greatly affected’ by the quakes and damage to roads made them inaccessible.

The earthquake, whose epicenter was located at Jaro town, Leyte, claimed four lives and injured more than 100 people.

It also resulted to power shortages not only in Eastern Visayas but also in Central Visayas since a geothermal power plant in Kananga town that supplies electricity in the two regions also sustained damages after the quake.

President Rodrigo Duterte placed Kananga and Ormoc City under a state of calamity on August 7.