MANKAYAN, Benguet– The municipal government earmarked some P4 million from local funds to fund the construction of an evacuation center in Malinang, Cabiten to strengthen the town’s disaster risk reduction and management programs and programs geared towards ensuring the protection of life and limb during the onslaught of natural and man-made calamities.
However, Mayor Frenzel A. Ayong admitted that the allotted funds will only be good for the first and second phases of the project which are currently underway.
He added the municipal government will continue to seek funds to raise the balance needed to complete the put up of the evacuation center in the municipality so that the structure will serve its prescribed purpose as soon as possible.
The municipal chief executive pointed out that one of the major programs and projects of the municipal government is towards disaster risk reduction and resilience of the different barangays and investing in the put up of appropriate facilities in strategic areas will guarantee the overall protection of life and limb from the occurrence of future unforeseen calamities.
According to him, aside from serving as an evacuation center complete with the necessary facilities to accommodate evacuees from nearby areas during the natural and human-induced disasters, the center will be an added facility as a convergence area for residents, especially when mass gathering will be allowed by the national inter-agency task force for the management of emerging infectious diseases.
Mayor Ayong claimed that bulk of the resources of the municipal government had been already utilized for the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) response operations over the past several months but municipal officials are able to work out the allocation of limited resources to implement locally-funded projects while awaiting for funds from concerned government agencies for the implementation of priority development projects in the municipality.
He asserted the municipal government is prioritizing the development projects to be funded by the town’s limited resources to complete the urgent needs of the residents first.
The municipal mayor stated that other priority development projects in the municipality that need bigger funding requirements will be referred to the provincial government, the office of Benguet Caretaker Congressman and Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Eric Go Yap, and concerned government agencies for inclusion in their flagship projects for funding in their proposed budgets in the coming years.
Mankayan is one of the first class municipalities in the province and it is one of the three municipalities that rely on mining as its major source of income because of its share from the national wealth, real property and business taxes being paid by the mining companies that are currently operating within its areas of jurisdiction.
By Hent