Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama | Photo from Cebu City PIO Live Video
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The estimated damage in Cebu City after the onslaught of Typhoon Odette has now reached P1.703 billion.
The City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) has released the estimate following a clearer count on the number of structures destroyed in the barangays.
According to the report of CDRRMO the cost is a rough estimate for the damage of residential houses alone in the 80 barangays.
These are some of the breakdown of the damage report for residential structures gathered by the CDRRMO as of December 22, 2021.
Southern Barangays Upland
Sudlon I – 332 (total), 428 (partial)
Tagbao – 10 (total), 65 (partial)
Sinsin – 186 (total), 501 (partial)
Binaliw 20 (total), 29 (partial)
Northern Barangay Lowland
Tejero – 1,000 (total), 671 (partial)
Lorega – 3,000 (total), 500 (partial)
Tinago – 200 (total), 2000 (partial)
Kasambagan – 60 (total), 550 (partial)
Hipodromo – 1 (total), 1,186 (partial)
Estimated damage cost: P1,700,300,000
There are 12,145 structures with 5,648 totally damaged and 6,461 partially damaged structures from 20 barangays so far.
The CDRRMO said the damage cost did not yet include other sectors such as business establishments and agriculture.
In previous statements the City Agriculture Department already reported a P79.8 million damage from the farms in the mountain barangays.
As for the death toll, it has remained at 17 while the four missing persons in Barangay Lahug were already found by the police and the barangay.
Mayor Michael Rama said the P1.7 billion was only a rough estimate of the actual damage brought by Odette.
The actual cost could go well beyond P2 billion. Yet, the city’s budget for typhoon response could only afford P1 billion.
This is why the mayor is now appealing to the national government to help the city recover from the devastation.
“Ang estimated damage is P1.7 billion. Ang amo ra gani mahatag kay P1 billion. Asa man mi mokuha ana?” He said.
(The estimated damage is P1.7 billion. What we can provide is only P1 billion. Where can we get that [the P700 million].)
“Definitely, we also want our share of the assistance because we have been very good in giving our share to the whole economy,” said the mayor.
Rama is confident that President Rodrigo Duterte will send the necessary help through the different agencies of the national government.
He said he just hoped that aid would come sooner than later as the residents continued to suffer with the lack of drinking and potable water, electricity, communication lines, and others.
Rama said the city could only do so much, and would still need the help of the national government to get back on its feet.