The weak El Niño is starting to affect the farmlands in Central Visayas, including some areas in Cebu. | photo from Cebu.gov.ph
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Five more local government units of the province of Cebu are set to declare a state of calamity in their localities due to the effects of the weak El Niño in their areas.
The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office confirmed that the towns of Santa Fe, Pilar, Asturias Compostela and Talisay were waiting for the gathered data about the damage in their areas due to the dry spell to declare their areas to be under a state of calamity (SOC).
Read more: Cebu LGUs urged to declare state of calamity in their levels if ‘necessary’
“Hopefully by next week madeclare na sila kay naa na silay mga gathered data gyud sa mga damage gikan sa mga LGUs,” said Rhee Telen Jr. of the PDRRMO.
(Hopefully by next week, they can already declare a state of calamity after they had gathered data of the LGUs on the damage done in their areas.)
Read more: Six Cebu LGUs declare state of calamity
Belinda Bayron, research staff from the PDRRMO, assured that the declaration of SOC would be
well-validated and accounted for to avoid being used for the upcoming 2019 midterm elections.
“We are very conservative, very careful ta ana,” said Bayron.
The Cebu Province has allocated a maximum of P25 million from the quick response fund for the whole duration of the SOC.
On the other hand, the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation has given over P8.98 million worth of indemnity to registered farmers and fishermen.
Over 1,192 farmers and fishermen have claimed their indemnities to cope with the damages brought by El Niño.
These include commodities in corn, livestock, and fishing boats.
Telen also said that some municipalities like Catmon and Moalboal had already reached out to neighboring places to help augment water sources.
“We were able to see this (the help) during the (Typhoon) Yolanda, unya karon sa El Niño nakita napod nato,” Telen lauded./dbs