PDRRMO asks Comelec for guidelines to ensure aid to El Niño-stricken areas will not be used for politicking

Baltazar Tribunalo

CEBU CITY —  The Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) has asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for guidelines that will  ensure that the distribution of assistance to El Niño-stricken areas in the province will not be politicized, as with the campaign period for local elective posts starts today, March 29.

PDRRMO head Baltazar Tribunalo said they met with representatives of Philippine Red Cross and the provincial office of the Comelec to ask for guidelines and recent rulings in the distribution of aids.

“Mas maayo man gyud na nga naay magsupervise to ensure nga duna tay objective intervention labi na nga panahon ron sa pinoloay. Ganahan pod ta nga pinasubay sa balaod ang atong buhaton aron dire-diretso ang atong pang-apud-apod og hinabang sa atong mga kaigsuonan nga naapektohan,” Tribunalo said.

(It is better that there is somebody who will supervise us to ensure that we are objective in our interventions especially that this falls on the campaign period.)

Tribunalo added that they have laid out their procurement plan for the quick response items like water storage materials for the affected communities.

Based on the PDRRMO’s latest data, Tribunalo revealed that about 350 hectares seaweed farms have been damaged due to the heat in the towns of Bantayan and Sta. Fe on Bantayan Island in northern Cebu.

Although they have yet to come up with an updated damage assessment report, Tribunalo said they believed that the damage brought by the dry spell is significantly higher than the P100 million that  was earlier reported.

“Ang sa Asturias, ang Department of Agriculture  [in Central Visayas] (DA-7) nagpadala og drone didto kay duna nay ubay-ubay na nga mga area nga affected,moabot na og 400 ka hektarya ang gitutukan karon sa validation. Tanan gyud nga 24 ka barangay sa Asturias ang gi-validate karon,” Tribunalo said.

(In Asturias town, the DA-7 has sent a drone to document the about 400 hectares of  land reportedly affected by the dry spell for purposes of validation. All of Asturias’ 24 barangays are being validated.)/elb