TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The provincial government donated to the Abra provincial government some P200,000 financial assistance which could be used to augment the latter’s’ resources in providing whatever available relief assistance to the thousands of households who were affected by the magnitude 7 earthquake that struck the province early Wednesday morning.
Gov. James Edduba stated that it is important for the province to extend whatever available assistance possible to a neighboring province, especially from the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), to allow the same to be used in the ongoing provision of relief assistance to the heavily impacted households living in the various towns who lost their houses and sources of livelihood because of the tremblor.
Aside from the financial assistance, the provincial government also deployed some police and military personnel earlier assigned in Kalinga to the nearby province to assist emergency responders in clearing the debris from the various road networks and even from affected government and private structures in the different parts of the province.
The local chief executive pointed out that while it is true that the amount is too small, what matters is the gesture of extending a helping hand to those who are in need to allow them to cope up with the effect of the natural disaster that struck most parts of Northern Luzon, especially Abra, Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte.
According to him, the people and officialdom of Kalinga are grateful that the effect of the strong earthquake in the province is not that enormous so that whatever available resources will have to be used to extend help to a neighboring province like Abra for the same to immediately recover from the impact of the quake although it is understood that it will take time to rebuild the damaged government and private structure in the various parts of Abra.
At around 8:43 am of Wednesday, July 27, 2022, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake with its epicenter located around 3 kilometers northwest of Tayum, Abra and with a depth of 17 kilometers jolted most parts of Northern Luzon that extended even up to the Greater Manila Area that caused people to scamper for safety outside their offices and residences.
Edduba claimed that the provincial government will continue to monitor the latest development in the ongoing clearing operations and the preparation of the appropriate recovery and rehabilitation plans to allow Abra to rise up from the rubbles of the earthquake and knowing the resilience of the Cordilleras, the province will bounce back stronger and better in the future.
While it is true that the earthquake with a nearly similar strength to that of the intensity 7.9 killer earthquake on July 16, 1990 killer earthquake inflicted lesser damages and losses of life compared to the previous one, the governor disclosed that the fear of the people to such occurrence again flashed back to their minds which is now causing problems to health workers and experts on how to handle their situation as the same aggravated their mental anxiety that was inflicted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
He called on the people of Kalinga for their understanding on the decision of the province to give a little portion of their available resources to Abra which is now in need of help from all corners of the world to be able to recover from the said calamity.
