Disaster funds sufficient after P5-B top-up for Rolly relief
MANILA, Philippines — Funds to respond to damage brought by this year’s strongest typhoon that devastated large parts of Luzon are sufficient, budget officials said on Sunday.
Calamity funds nearly depleted by the costly pandemic response were replenished with additional P5 billion from savings last year, Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado said in a text message.
Adding the P3.6 billion in “available funds” in the pool, the budget chief said P8.6 billion stands ready to be spent to address the disaster brought by Typhoon Rolly.
On top of these allocations, Budget Undersecretary Tina Marie Canda said balances are also available under quick response funds of agencies or money that can easily be tapped in case of emergencies. “Once the QRF is reduced substantially, they can request (from us),” Canda said in a separate text message.
Avisado said: “We assume that the departments/agencies concerned still have available funds as we have not yet received any request from them.” Canda said the department has no data on remaining QRF with agencies.
The assurance of fund availability was a welcome change from April when Philippines entered its yearly typhoon season lacking budget space for disaster relief because calamity funds were diverted to programs addressing the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) health crisis. As of Sept. 14, the last report available, P389 billion in budget funds had been refunneled to COVID-19 response.
That problem apparently persisted until September. Budget data showed that before the latest augmentation, which Canda said was only approved last month, only P1.14 billion of the P7.5 billion in calamity funds remained untapped. The rest were already spent by the health, agriculture, defense, social welfare and public works departments for various projects.
Worse, the P1.4 billion at the time was likewise not enough to fund projects awaiting approvals. As of end-September, P9.46 billion in requests for calamity fund were pending endorsements either from the budget agency or Office of the President. Canda said the recent top-up will not be disbursed to meet these requirements, and instead be funneled to typhoon relief.
“The final arbiter or decision maker on what to release and priorities (of) calamity fund is the NDRRMC. The departments are not completely “zero” as well in terms of funding immediate relief, repair and rehab of calamity areas,” Canda explained.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) has yet to assess the damage caused by “Rolly,” but over a million people had been evacuated ahead of the cyclone’s landfall on Sunday. Power was cut off in several areas in Catanduanes and Bicol where the cyclone entered and toppled trees and electric posts.
Apart from “Rolly,” tropical storm Sionie is currently inside the Philippine area of responsibility.
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