Tropical storm Ondoy destroyed more than P3 billion in rice, corn and high-value commercial crops in Luzon, the Department of Agriculture said on Tuesday. Luzon is the biggest group of islands in the Philippines and home to the nation’s capital, Manila.

The loss, stated in a report signed by Agriculture Undersecretary Jesus Emmanuel Paras, also the head of the Agriculture department’s Central Action Center, came from a total of 126,271 hectares that were devastated by Ondoy in Region II (Cagayan province), Region III (Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales provinces) and Region IV-A (Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, Quezon and Rizal provinces).

Bataan battered

In Bataan, the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC) also on Tuesday reported that the tropical storm destroyed more than P4.5 million in crops and displaced 2,740 families in five towns.

Gov. Enrique Garcia, concurrent council chairman, said that P2.5 million in high-value commercial crops, P781,241 in rice and P1.2 million in fish was lost to Ondoy.

The Paras report said that rice destroyed accounted for P3,105,873,247 covering 124,238 hectares; corn, P42,976,485 covering 1,374 hectares; and high-value commercial crops, P23,854,548 covering 659 hectares.

The action center said that the loss was computed based on support prices of the National Food Authority for palay (unhusked rice) at P17 per kilo and for corn, P13 per kilo.

Yap inspects damage

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap visited parts of Central Luzon on Monday to personally check the damage caused by the tropical storm.

Yap earlier ordered all officials of the Department of Agriculture to expedite the submission of assessment reports on farm damage from Ondoy and the status of food supplies in affected areas.
He said that the assessment reports could help the government plan a comprehensive aid and rehabilitation program in the aftermath of the tropical storm.

According to him, such program “would benefit our farmers, fishermen, agribusiness entrepreneurs and consumers.”

Yap, at the same time, appealed to traders not to jack up retail prices of their goods and to the consumers not to hoard commodities.

Education losses

Damage to the country’s public schools reached P89.87 million as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Secretary Jesli Lapus of the Department of Education.

The loss was suffered by at least six regions—Metro Manila (National Capital Region), Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Region I (Ilocos), Region II (Cagayan Valley), Region III (Central Luzon), Region IV-A (Calabarzon).

Metro Manila was assessed the greatest damage, nearly P35 million.
To help Ondoy’s victims the National Capital Region and in 27 provinces recover, President Gloria Arroyo’s economic adviser also on Tuesday proposed a P73-billion package for them.

Recovery proposal

In pushing the recovery package, Joey Salceda, also the governor of Albay province in the Bicol region, south of Manila, said, “Once supply chains have been restored and survival needs have been provided, cash is the best form of social and economic relief after a disaster since victims know better their need, beneficiaries would be more judicious in their procurement, benefit is direct and immediate.”

The package, according to Salceda, will be taken from the Government Service Insurance System, or GSIS (P4 billion), Social Security System, or SSS (P28 billion), Pag-IBIG Fund (P15 billion), PhilHealth (P4 billion) and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (P35 billion) for a total of P73 billion.

It “would be directly targeted at impacted households, SMEs [small and medium enterprises] and critical entities in NCR and the 27 provinces covered by the declaration of state of calamity. [Under the package, there would be a] one year repayment moratorium in all salary and housing loans of GSIS [with 700,000 members in the affected areas] and SSS members [with 4.8 million members in the affected areas out of 8 million members with outstanding live accounts nationwide] at a concessional 5-percent imputed interest.”

To also help in the recovery process, Sen. Francis Escudero called lawmakers to immediately approve a joint resolution mandating all government financial institutions, or GFIs, among them GSIS, SSS and Pag-IBIG, to suspend for at least 60 days loan payments of borrowers who are victims of the tropical storm.

“I make a somber call to all my colleagues in Congress to sign this resolution for the sake of those affected by the calamity. Time is of the essence as the people turn on their leaders for aid in this time of acute distress,” Escudero said in a statement sent to The Manila Times also on Tuesday.

If approved by the Senate and the House of Representatives, the joint resolution would have the force of law.

Ira Karen Apanay, Rhaydz B. Barcia, Ernie B. Esconde And James Konstantin Galvez