CEBU, Philippines — From P5,000, the Cebu provincial government has increased to P8,000 the value of coupon cards that typhoon-affected Cebuanos may redeem to avail of construction materials to help rebuild their homes.
"Instead of the P5,000 worth of per card, P5,000 worth of goods that they may redeem from the LGU or from our partner merchants, we have increased this to P8,000 per card. These are for the totally damage houses,” Garcia said.
Using the cards, holders may also redeem for free COVID-19 health kits which include vitamins, paracetamol, lagundi, among others.
“Kani (COVID-19 kit), he (recipient) can redeem this, iapas man ni nato. This is the COVID health kit. They do not need to pay for this, this will be free for our first benefeciaries for (those with) totally damaged houses pero this will still be swiped so that it would be reflected on our central database that is it is really the holder of the card who was able to receive this, so a QR code is still needed,” Garcia explained.
Yesterday, January 19, 2022, the Capitol started distributing coupon cards to beneficiaries from the towns and cities in southern Cebu that bore the brunt of Typhoon Odette.
Distribution will resume today in the third district and on Saturday in the northern towns.
“By the way these are segregated by barangay. Once the person receives it, he can redeem the GI sheets and the fiber board in the LGU and of course that is swiped and ma-deducted to sa iyang balance,” said Garcia.
Apart from construction materials, the coupon cards may also be used to grocery items from partner grocery stores, supermarkets, and general merhandise stores.
An estimated 90,000 families in the province are estimated to have lost their homes to Typhoon Odette.
After the typhoon, 36 affected LGUs in the province received P1 million cash aid from the Capitol that was used to buy necessities for affected families.
The LGUs include Alcantara, Alcoy, Alegria, Aloguinsan, Argao, Asturias, Badian, Balamban, BArili, Boljoon, Carcar city , Carmen, Catmon, city of Naga, Compostela, Consolacion, Cordova, Dalaguete, DAnao , Dumanjug, Ginatilan, Liloan, Malabuyoc , Mandaue, Minglanilla, Moalboal, Oslob, Pinamungajan, Ronda, Samboan, San Fernando, Santander, Sibonga, Talisay, Toledo City, and Tuburan.
Garcia said a total of 41,306 sacks of NFA rice were also distributed to these towns and cities.
Also distributed were over 2 million cans of canned goods, 523 boxes of coffee, 502 boxes of noodles, and 822,360 bottles of water.
On top of these, 67 generator sets with 100 liters of fuel were delivered to the LGUs. — JMD (FREEMAN)