TESDA joins DSWD in packing relief goods
by Jennifer Catan-Tilos
DUMAGUETE CITY, Dec. 21 (PIA) The Technical Education Skills Development Authority (TESDA) mobilizes its Technical-Vocational Schools as volunteers to assist in packing the relief goods of Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
TESDA Provincial Director Toni June Tamayo immediately requested Tech-Voc Schools to send in their students at the Lamberto Macias Sports Complex where the relief goods are stockpiled.
Information Officer Geraldine Delos Reyes of TESDA said Metro Dumaguete College the first one to dispatched 20 student-scholars of Computer Hardware Servicing Course Training for Work Scholarship Program (TWSP) to help the packing of relief goods with TESDA staff.
Team Skills, Incorporated, also a tech-voc school located at capitol area will also have a Feeding Program to sponsor a dinner for 500 flood victims in an evacuation site at Candau- ay Elementary School, Dumaguete City on December 23, said Delos Reyes.
Earlier, the DSWD appealed to the public for volunteers to help pack the relief goods for the affected families of Tanjay City, municipalities of Sibulan, Valencia, Siaton, Amlan, Bacong, Mabinay, San Jose, Pamplona, and Dumaguete City.
DSWD is requesting donations of any kind especially children’s underwear, kitchen utensils, clothing and food and send it to Macias Sports Complex. (PIA/JCT)
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Typhoon Sendong damages major tourism sites, infra & agri in NegOr
by Jennifer Catan-Tilos
DUMAGUETE CITY, Dec. 21 (PIA) The Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (PDRRMC) has accounted the initial cost of damage to infrastructure and agriculture due to tropical storm ‘Sendong” to more than P400 million.
In his report to President Benigno Aquino, Provincial Governor Roel Degamo said damage to agriculture reached more than P37 million while damages to infrastructure raised to P388.5 million.
The damages also include major tourism sites of Negros Oriental such as Twin Lakes Balinsasayao and Danao in Sibulan town which occurred massive landslides on the road from Kabalin-an Pond that caused the road impassable.
Assistant Provincial Tourism Officer Maritoni Mascardo said huge craters also resulted from big rock boulders that rolled down to the pond.
Twin Lakes is one of the major tourist attractions that lies peacefully in the mountain of southern Negros, a protected natural park and home of different species of animals, surrounded by rainforest and lush of tropical vegetation.
The entire therapeutic of Dauin Hot Spring including the pools is now covered with mud and sand and cottages were washed away by flashfloods, Mascardo said.
All areas of six river-fed pools up to the Pavilion of Forest Camp in Valencia had been covered with sands flushed from Casaroro Falls and Banica River. The spillway and swimming pool of Tejeros were totally damaged along the footbridge going to Barangay Apolong which is now impassable to residents and vehicles.
Mascardo also reported to PDRRMC that Mabinay Caves are not affected by the typhoon but its three footbridges constructed by local government were washed away.
After Governor Degamo conducted an aerial survey a day after the typhoon on December 18to see the extent of damage brought by Sendong to affected areas, he asked government and private agencies to cooperate hand in hand to fast track in the rehabilitation efforts in the wake of the damage wrought by Sendong. (PIA/JCT)
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DSWD to provide core shelter assistance for flood victims in NegOr
By Rachelle M. Nessia
DUMAGUETE CITY, Dec. 20 (PIA) --- The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is set to give shelter assistance to families whose houses were damaged by the floods brought by Typhoon Sendong that hit Negros Oriental on Dec. 17, 2011.
DSWD is set to provide P70,000 for each of the displaced families whose homes were totally damaged by the typhoon.
Families whose homes were partially damaged will receive an average of P5,000 as emergency shelter assistance.
This was revealed by DSWD Sec. Dinky Soliman during an impromptu press briefing held Dec. 20, 2011 at the arrival area of the Dumaguete Airport in Sibulan town after Pres. Benigno S. Aquino III met with mayors of the flood-hit local government units (LGUs) in the province.
Soliman said there are a total of 4,218 houses affected by the typhoon, of which 950 are totally damaged and 3,268 are partially damaged.
DSWD has already given P2,207,000 to Negros Oriental in food and used clothing as of 11:00 a.m. of Dec. 19, 2011, two days after the floods ravaged several parts of the province.
The assistance, which came in the form of food and used clothing, benefited a total of 6,322 families in the ten flood-affected local government units (LGUs) in the province.
A report earlier issued by the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (PDRRMC) here identified the ten storm-affected local government units (LGUs) as the towns of Siaton, Bacong, Valencia, Sibulan, San Jose, Amlan, Pamplona, Mabinay, and the cities of Dumaguete and Tanjay.
She said that at the time of P-Noy’s visit, who touched ground at the Dumaguete Airport at 3:10 in the afternoon Tuesday, DSWD is set to distribute more relief goods to the affected families.
“As we talk, we are ready to distribute another P4,519,000 in food and used clothing to the ten areas that are affected in Negros Oriental,” she said.
During his briefing with the mayors, the president assured them of “sufficient funds” to cover their concerns for disaster relief operations and other urgent needs resulting from the loss of lives and damage in infrastructure that the typhoon left in its wake.
“There is still P1.17 billion in the national calamity fund that will be utilized,” Pres. Aquino told the mayors.
Foreign and local funding sources are also available for the affected areas. “Before I left Manila this morning, about seven countries have already offered to give assistance to us,” he said. (RMN/PIA Negros Oriental)