President Duterte Has Allotted 20 Billion Pesos For Earthquake And Other Calamities’ Victims
DUTERTE – The president has allotted 20 billion pesos from the 2019 National Budget for earthquake and other calamities’ victims’ assistance.
Recently this week, several consecutive earthquakes struck different regions in the country. The strongest one, so far, struck in Samar at magnitude 6.5 last Tuesday (April 23, 2019).
Phivolcs also announced that the ‘big one‘ could occur at any moment.
Meanwhile, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte allotted 20 billion pesos and could’ve had 11 billion more for the calamity fund if the senate did not decline the House of Representatives’ proposal.
This is according to an article from MSN News. Based on the article,
The reason why the budget increase proposal was declined by the senate is not yet certain. However, it seemed that they have only approved the budget president Duterte wanted.
In previous reports, the 2019 National Budget was signed by the president on April 15. Pork Barrel Insertions delayed the passing of the budget.
The President proposed the P20 billion-peso budget for National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management or NDRRM fund in July 2018.
The P20 billion-peso budget would be allocated to other agencies:
- P1 billion for to the Department of Agriculture,
- P2 billion for the Department of Education,
- P500 million for the Department of Health,
- P500 million for the Office of Civil Defense of the Department of National Defense,
- P1 billion for the Department of Public Works and Highways,
- P1.25 billion for the Department of Social Welfare and Development and,
- P200 million for the National Electrification Administration.
P3.5 billion is also allocated for the reconstruction of Marawi City.
Remaining budget for NDRRM would be under the President and agencies can utilize it when the President approves.
Other than that, the president could also use other relevant funds from the national budget to help calamity victims. He is also allowed to utilize his social fund, which raised billions in contributions from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation or PAGCOR.
That is all there is to it, at least for now. We’ll post updates as soon as we got them.
