Cebu City sending P50 million aid to Abra

CEBU, Philippines — Cebu City mayor Michael Rama has directed the city government to allocate P50 million as aid to Abra which was hit by a major earthquake recently.

“I already have a directive P50 million charge to calamity funds and our way to promote big brother program especially me being the President as well of 146 cities and including the component cities,” said Mayor Rama in a virtual press conference yesterday.

Rama said he also told city disaster officials Raquel Arce, Harold Alcontin and lawyer Gerry Carillo to apportion P50 million funds for the affected areas in Luzon.

“I would like to highlight, that the areas that have been hit are so valuable for Cebu and the whole country…Why? Because they are identified as very much visited as historic sites, and heritage site is beyond estimation” stresses Rama.

Rama said the amount the city is donating is “just a drop of the ocean.”

The city government, the mayor said, has always been helping others local government units across the country, emphasizing that it is always better to give than to receive.

 “We’ve always been into giving..because it is better to be giving and giving and a thousand falls to come back and it is always better to be responding and responding so that when the time will come, we need them, they will also be responding,” said Rama.

Interestingly, the city’s Public Information Officer, Cerwin Eviota, noted that what the mayor pledged is also the same amount that the city got from the Megaworld Construction Corporation via Cebu2World as its guaranteed share for the first year of their joint venture on the Carbon Market redevelopment. — LPM (FREEMAN)