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DAMAGE
to the farm sector caused by Typhoon Frank in Western
Visayas and eight more regions has almost tripled to
P3.3 billion from P1.04 billion, according to field
reports gathered by the Department of Agriculture (DA)
as of Tuesday.
Hardest
hit by Typhoon Frank (international code name Fengshen)
was Western Visayas, where damage to crops and fisheries
reached P3.04 billion.
The
region lost P609 million worth of palay, P157 million
worth of corn and P29 million in agricultural
facilities.
Damage
to fisheries in the region reached P2.25 billion, broken
down into P1.25 billion worth of bangus and P1 billion
worth of shrimps.
Total
damage to palay crops amounted to P670.7 million,
representing 32,607 metric tons (MT) of palay lost. The
DA noted that 37,825 hectares planted to palay were
either totally or partially damaged.
Total
damage to corn crops reached P166 million, with the
volume lost estimated at 14,132 MT from a total affected
area of 16,064 hectares in Central Luzon and Western
Visayas and the provinces of Batangas, Cavite, Quezon,
Masbate and Cebu.
Damage
to high-value commercial crops (HVCCs) reached P194.16
million, as 19,303 MT planted in 5,574 hectares were
lost to the typhoon.
The DA
noted that Typhoon Frank affected rice, corn and HVCCs
and fisheries in nine regions: Calabarzon (Cavite,
Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon); Mimaropa (Occidental
and Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan);
Bicol (Masbate); the whole of Western Visayas; Central
Visayas (Cebu and Negros Oriental); and Eastern Visayas
(Leyte, Biliran, Samar, Eastern Samar and Northern
Samar); and Soccsksargen (South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat,
Sarangani and General Santos).
Corn and
rice are two of the major crops produced by the
Philippines. Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, however,
assured the public that the damage will not make a
“significant dent” on the production target of the
government for the July to September period.
The
amount of damage caused by Typhoon Frank on the farm
sector may still go up in the coming days as the DA has
not yet released figures on the damage sustained by the
livestock and poultry sector in the affected areas. The
Visayas region is considered a major hog-producing area.
Meanwhile, in Bulacan, Typhoon Frank’s fury left the
province with P168,581,807 worth of agricultural
products destroyed, damaged or lost, the Provincial
Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC) reported Tuesday.
Perlita
Mendoza, provincial administrator of Bulacan, said the
amount represents damage in the vegetables, rice,
fisheries and livestock sector, and was based on the
Provincial Agricultural Office’s assessment.
On the
other hand, Ed Camua, information officer of the
National Food Authority in Bulacan, said wholesale and
retail rice prices in the province, a major rice
supplier to Metro Manila, remain stable.
Camua
explained that before the onslaught of Typhoon Frank,
wholesale prices of well-milled commercial rice were
monitored between P36 and P38 per kilo and retailed
between P37 and P39 per kilo.
Wholesale rice prices in Intercity Industrial Estate in
Bocaue town, a major rice-trading center in the country,
are still selling at P35 to P37 per kilo, Camua noted.
Mendoza
added that 115 houses were damaged by the typhoon that
also affected 41,950 families or 191,217 persons in the
province’s 13 towns and three cities.
The PDCC
said a total of 1,098 families were displaced and are
now in evacuation centers in the province.
On
Sunday, local officials of Marilao, Paombong and Sta.
Maria declared their towns under a state of calamity
owing to storm damage.
Cecil
Yacob, chief of the Provincial Public Affairs Office,
said Gov. Joselito Mendoza and the Bulacan police,
headed by acting provincial police director Senior Supt.
Allen Bantolo, along with Supt. Manuel M. Lukban Jr.,
group director of the 305th Provincial Mobile Group,
personally supervised relief operations in various
evacuation centers and flooded towns on Monday.
Capitol
officials are still assessing other damage that the
typhoon brought to the province, Yacob added. (With
Ramon Lazaro) |
