President creates special commission

President Gloria Arroyo announced on Tuesday the creation of a Special National Public-Private Reconstruction Commission that would hasten fund sourcing and quicken the country’s coping mechanism against effects of recent calamities. Mrs. Arroyo made the announcement in Dagupan City, Pangasinan, on Tuesday where she led a meeting of the Cabinet and the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) to assess the damage wrought by tropical storm Ondoy and Typhoon Pepeng.

“I signed the Executive Order [creating the reconstruction commission] the other day [Sunday],” the President said during the meeting, adding that Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita was yet to issue the order.

The special commission will be composed of representatives from the government, church, big business and civil society.

President Arroyo said that there was a need for a special commission because of the increasing severity of typhoons and the magnitude of the devastation.

According to Ermita, the President tapped telecommunications executive Manuel Pangilinan to head the commission and Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal as co-chairman, along with Finance Secretary Margarito Teves. Some members of the Cabinet and the National Disaster Coordinating Council will also be part of the commission.

Ermita said that Mrs. Arroyo created the commission as a response to the proposal of Gov. Joey Salceda of Albay.

The commission would work immediately as soon as the team was organized, he added.

It will also undertake the rehabilitation program for victims of Ondoy and Pepeng and raise the necessary funds for the purpose.

The President said that the reconstruction commission would work closely with the United Nations, the World Bank and donor countries.

She added that she issued the Executive Order because of the magnitude of the impact of the recent calamities that hit the country in the midst of the global financial crunch.

The commission will undertake a study on the causes, costs and actions to be taken in the wake of Ondoy and Pepeng and lead a rehabilitation plan for wrecked infrastructure and other priorities.

It will serve as a clearinghouse for international assistance initiated by donors themselves using the cluster approach.

Calamity fund approved

Lawmakers, crossing party lines on Monday evening, swiftly approved on third and final reading House Resolution 48 that authorizes the use of P12 billion from the unprogrammed fund under the 2009 Budget for the relief operations, rehabilitation, reconstruction works in areas affected by the recent spate of natural calamities.

House Speaker Prospero Nograles said, “Certainly, the House of the people responded quickly to the situation. As I have said, there is no minority or majority when national interest is at stake.”

He added that the joint resolution needed only about five minutes from presentation to approval by plenary.

The measure will now go to the Senate for appropriate action.

Meanwhile, the congressmen who authored the resolution conceded that the existing calamity fund was not adequate for relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction and other urgent works and services needed in the aftermath of Ondoy and Pepeng.

Also, Rep. Junie Cua of Quirino province, chairman of the House committee on appropriations, admitted that there was no sure source of the funding at the moment. He pointed out that the measure was approved as a calamity fund instead of a supplemental budget to avoid a certification from the National Treasury about the availability of funds.

Damage to crops

Also on Tuesday, Marites Bernardo, chief of the Department of Agriculture Central Action Center, said that damage to agriculture and fisheries sector brought about by the two recent storms has risen to P18.4 billion.

“Estimate of loss is now placed at P18.4 billion, with Ondoy’s P6.8 billion and Pepeng’s P11.7 billion from all of Luzon’s seven regions,” she added.

Bernardo said that the two weather disturbances have destroyed some 121,949 hectares of croplands causing the loss of 925,523 metric tons of rice, corn, and high-value commercial crops, as well as fishery products, livestock and poultry.

She added that around P2.7-billion worth of farm infrastructures, such as irrigation, poultry houses and pigpens, were destroyed.

Around 109,188 hectares of rice, 9,961 hectares of corn and 2,800 hectares of high-value crop farms have no chance of recovery, losing as a result some 839,241 metric tons of palay, or unhusked rice, 45,768 metric tons of corn and 40,514 metric tons of high-value crops, Bernardo said.

For corn, the affected Regions are I (Ilocos), II (Cagayan Valley), III (Central Luzon), V (Bicol) and Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) with 21,354 hectares damaged and 8,861 hectares would not be able to recover.

For high value crops—mainly vegetables, bananas, mango and other fruit trees—5,401 hectares were affected resulting in a loss of 26,364 metric tons with an estimated value of P261 million.

Losses in livestock—cattle, carabao, goat, swine, sheep and poultry—in Regions I, III and Cordillera Administrative Region was estimated at P13 million.

Even irrigation facilities in Regions I, II, III, IV-A (Calabarzon), IV-B (Mimaropa), V and Cordillera Administrative Region were not spared. The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) reported that the damage stood at P1.8 billion, and that the damaged irrigation facilities have a service area of 178,180 hectares of croplands.

Relief funds not enough

A fund-raising effort to help millions displaced by two deadly cyclones in the Philippines has fallen $55 million short, and more aid was needed, a UN official said also on Tuesday.

So far, only $19 million had been committed from the $74 million that the United Nations requested in a “flash appeal” last week, said UN Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes.

That money is just for relief connected to Ondoy (international name Ketsana) that hit the Southeast Asian nation on September 26. But the United Nations will have to ask for more than the $74 million initially requested after Pepeng (international name Parma) battered the country from October 3 to 10, said Holmes.

“We will revise it [the sum]. We may need to increase it,” he told reporters.

“The crisis is by no means over. Indeed, the hard work is just starting,” he added.

He would not specify how much money would be needed, saying both the UN and the government were still working together to assess the full damage from the two storms.

The storms caused massive flooding in Metro Manila and surrounding areas, huge landslides in the northern mountains and left about 650 dead, civil defense officials said.

Holmes said raising aid and relief funds for this “double disaster” was made more complicated by global financial turmoil and a spate of other disasters in the region that also needed aid money.

Food, shelter and medical care are needed by the more than six million people who the Philippine government reported were displaced by the storms, he said.

The country also urgently needs to better prepare itself for more disasters, he added.

Among the threats were diseases that could be spawned by stagnant floodwaters that still cover many towns.

“Clearly, there is a major risk of disease,” said Holmes, calling for ways to remove the stagnant water rather than waiting for it to recede on its own.

UN resident coordinator Jacqueline Badcock said Holmes would be meeting with the world donor community in the coming days to see how to get more aid.

While the government was already looking at rebuilding, “we have to get through the immediate crisis situation first,” she said. –Angelo S. Samonte, Floyd Tiongson, Jomar Canlas, Ira Karen Apanay And AFP