BAGUIO CITY– Some two hundred forty seven local residents whose houses were totally or partially damaged during the onslaught of Typhoon Lando September last year will be receiving their respective cash assistance from the city government anytime within the next several days.
Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan signed the disbursement voucher containing the total cash assistance from the city’s calamity funds which will be individually released to the qualified calamity victims once the check for the purpose shall have been signed.
“We appeal to the calamity victims for understanding on the delay in the release of the city’s cash assistance to those whose houses were partially or totally damaged during the onslaught of Typhoon Lando because of the stringent rules and regulations in the validation, assessment and evaluation of the damages inflicted to the structures coupled with the stricter accounting and auditing rules that have to be done prior to the release of the cash assistance,” Domogan stressed.
It can be recalled that sometime September last year, Typhoon Lando struck the city and the different parts of Northern and Central Luzon that inflicted damages to hundreds of houses in the different barangays of the city.
Of the 247 residents whose houses were partially or totally damaged during the onslaught of Typhoon Lando, 238 individuals were assessed and validated to have partially damaged houses while 9 residents were validated to have totally damaged houses.
Under existing rules and regulations, individuals whose houses are totally damaged during the onslaught of calamities will be receiving a cash assistance amounting to P20,000 from the city government while those whose structures were partially damaged will be receiving a cash assistance of a maximum of P10,000 depending on the extent of damage inflicted to the structures.
Liza Bulayungan, a social welfare officer of the city government, said the damages inflicted by Typhoon Lando to the houses of local residents were validated, evaluated and assessed by representatives from the city social welfare and development office, Office of the Civil Defense – Cordillera (OCD-CAR) and concerned barangay officials where the structures were situated.
She called on the beneficiaries of the cash assistance for utmost understanding because the local government did not intentionally delay the release of the funds due to them but it was the stringent procedures and the enormous requirements that were the primary causes of the delay in the release of the funds due to them.
It was learned that the assistance to be given to the calamity victims in the city will be released to the identified beneficiaries in the form of cash depending on the schedule of release to be ascertained by the city treasury office but the same would not go beyond the end of the month.
By Dexter A. See