LEGAZPI CITY—At least two towns in Albay and this city received almost a billion pesos in calamity funds, as a result of a typhoon last year that was barely felt in the region.
In a letter dated August 15 to Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana, chairman of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea informed the provincial government of Albay that its request for calamity funds, totaling P915.11 million, for the province of Albay, had been approved and released to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Region 5 Office in Legazpi for the implementation of 10 flood-control projects in Legazpi City and neighboring towns of Camalig and Daraga as a result of Typhoon Nona (international code name Melor) in December 2015.
The release of the P915 million for Albay was reportedly worked out before the election ban for the May 2016 election, a knowledgeable source told the BusinessMirror.
The calamity-fund release came after Nona, packing center winds of 150 kph, was supposed to hit Legazpi on December 13, 2015. The typhoon, however, broke before its landfall in Beri, Northern Samar, and hit Legazpi, with sustained winds of only 56 kph under Signal Nos. 2 and 3. Sorsogon, Camarines Sur and Camarines Norte also were placed under Signal Nos. 2 and 3. Minimal damage was incurred in the area.
DPWH officials, however, were mum as to who was behind the release of the whopping P915-million calamity funds.
DPWH 5 Regional Director Reynaldo G. Tagudando could not be reached for comment, but his legal officer Oliver Rodulfo confirmed the P915-million release for Albay, saying the funds could be from the efforts of former Albay Gov. and now Rep. Joey S. Salceda of the Second District.
Texted for comment, Salceda’s chief of staff Carolina Sabio denied the P915-million calamity funds for Albay resulted from the efforts of Salceda. She said the request merely passed the Regional Development Council (RDC) early in January, when Salceda was still the RDC chairman.
It was learned later the P915-million calamity funds were worked out by then-Second District representative and now Gov. Al Francis Bichara and the city of Legazpi.
In his letter follow-up in April to then-Defense Secretary and NDRRMC Chairman Voltaire T. Gazmin, Bichara sought to facilitate the approval of his calamity- fund request for P432 million for the towns of Camalig and Daraga for five flood-control projects as a result of the damage rendered by Nona. The Legazpi City government, under Mayor Noel Rosal, also sought for a fund release of P438 million for five damaged flood-control projects in the city.
Bichara and Rosal could not be reached for comment.
Documents showed the five Legazpi flood-control projects included the construction, rehabilitation of Arimbay River flood control, Legazpi, P96.37 million; construction, rehabilitation of Yawa reverse flood-control system, Barangay Mabinit Legazpi, P96,.4 million; construction, rehabilitation of Padang River flood control, Legazpi, P97.356 million; construction, rehabilitation of Pawa Burabod flood control, Legazpi, P94.91 million; and construction, rehabilitation of Yawa River flood control, Legazpi section, P93.93 million.