SORSOGON CITY—Thousands of indigent families in typhoon-devastated areas across Bicol would be the beneficiaries of a P14-million foreign-funded project aimed at providing sustainable livelihood opportunities and enhancing the people’s capability in dealing with natural disasters that visit the region frequently. 

At least 6,000 families in 35 towns and cities of the region would benefit from the project that would last for a year though a funding provided by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECI), Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap told local officials here in a letter over the weekend.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) would oversee the implementation of the project covering 32 towns and three cities in Sorsogon, Albay, Camarines Sur and Catanduanes that were hardest hit by a series of super typhoons in late 2006, Yap said.

A memorandum of agreement entered into late last year by Yap, FAO representative to the Philippines Kazuyuki Tsurumi and AECI deputy coordinator general Norberto Gomez de Liaňo covers the project.

Its beneficiaries will be provided with agricultural inputs such as coconut, abaca, fruit trees and assorted vegetable planting materials along with organic fertilizers and farming tools that could be used to build their means of livelihood, Yap said.

Project  team leader Jaime Montesur, who briefed local officials here on the project’s mechanics, said beneficiaries would be those that were worse affected by the typhoons, women-headed families, families with handicapped members, families that have not received any livelihood assistance, families that do not earn more than P1,000 a month and members of community and farmers’ organizations.

Given priority for the coconut-rehabilitation component of the project are this city and the towns of Casiguran, Castilla, Magallanes, Prieto Diaz and Barcelona, all in Sorsogon province. In Albay, 10 towns and the cities of Legazpi and Tabaco were included, Montesur said.

For abaca rehabilitation, the target areas are Goa, Sangay and Presentacion in Camarines Sur; Tiwi, Malinao  and Tabaco City for Albay; Gubat, Bulusan and Sorsogon City in Sorsogon; and Baras, Bato, Gigmoto, San Miguel, San Andres, and Virac in Catanduanes, he said.

The selection of these target areas was based on findings and recommendations of a joint DA-FAO mission that assessed the damage on agriculture left by the typhoons, Montesur added.

The mission found that 216,935 hectares of coconut and 29,769 hectares of abaca plantations were badly damaged.

Troops, cops on alert vs disturbance

MILITARY and police forces went into a higher state of preparedness on Sunday in preparation for Monday’s anniversary celebrations of the 1986 People Power revolution.

THE break is complete—President Arroyo will not attend the rites at the Edsa Shrine Monday to commemorate the first People Power revolution in the Philippines and the world to oust a hated regime;

DAVAO CITY—Former President Fidel Ramos said nobody should stop the investigations into the national broadband deal with a Chinese corporation “because the truth of the matter has not yet emerged.”

THE Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the Ombudsman to dismiss the administrative and criminal charges against former Land Registration Authority (LRA) administrator Alfredo Enriquez and two other officials of the agency owing to violation of their constitutional right to a speedy disposition of their cases.

BAGUIO CITY—Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes led a two-day planning session here for a road map on clean energy with representatives from the clean air and energy sectors.

SORSOGON CITY—Thousands of indigent families in typhoon-devastated areas across Bicol would be the beneficiaries of a P14-million foreign-funded project aimed at providing sustainable livelihood opportunities and enhancing the people’s capability in dealing with natural disasters that visit the region frequently.