This was bared by the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) administrator Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad in his report to President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday (Jan. 10) aired over PTV and Radyo Pilipinas.
Jalad said the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) sent a total of 6.4 million kilos of relief goods to typhoon-affected regions, with the OCD contributing P122 million.
He said the government also contracted the services of a bottling company for the supply of bottled water from its plants in Ormoc City and Laguna based on the President’s instruction.
“And ang total --- kasama na ‘yung mga donations from China, LT Group, and Taiwan, and other donors, mayroon tayong naibigay na mahigit 2 million, almost 3 million liters of bottled water,” he said.
Jala said aside from that, the OCD facilitated the deployment of mobile water treatment equipment. Other entities such as the Manila Water, Local Water Utilities Administration, and S&S Corp. sought government assistance for the deployment and transport of such equipment.
He said in terms of repairing and building damaged homes, a shelter cluster has been created with the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) serving as lead agency.
Jalad said included in the cluster are the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), OCD and other government agencies working to provide affected families with shelter assistance.
He also said that the National Housing Authority (NHA) has downloaded the initial P487.5 million directly to the local government units tasked to distribute cash assistance to the survivors whose homes were destroyed by the typhoon.
“Ang DSWD naman ay hinahanda na ang pondo in the amount of P4.3 billion through a request for National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund. Ang NHA naman ay magsu-submit din ng request for additional funds para sa kanilang emergency shelter assistance,” he said.
Other than that, Jalad said the OCD has received $1-million donation from the Republic of China, in which the P40 million was transferred to the NHA for the agency’s emergency shelter assistance.
He said the rest of the money will be retained by the OCD to aid families with reported casualties during the disaster.
The recent official government figures bared there is a total of 2.2 million families or 7.7 million individuals were affected by Typhoon Odette in 11 regions.
The typhoon also left 1.2 million damaged houses. There were 403 reported deaths with 78 missing.
The damage to infrastructures was at P17.6 billion, with P8.9 billion losses to the agriculture sector.
File Photo from Presidential Communications