HOUSE LEADER PITCHES P16.2-B TOURISM REHAB PROGRAM

THE chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means on Monday called for the creation of a P16.2-billion tourism rehabilitation infrastructure program (TRIP) to support safer and more resilient tourism in Typhoon Odettestruck areas.

Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda estimated that the Odette-hit areas accounted for 14.9 million tourists out of 56.7 million domestic or regional and foreign tourists during the pre-pandemic year of 2019.

“That’s 26.31 percent of tourist arrivals, a loss that could hamper recovery of the tourism sector as a whole,” he added.

“Odette-hit areas are tourism heavyweights. Let’s support them,” Salceda added.

Salceda said Congress can allocate funds for tourism rehabilitation infrastructure program for Odette-hit communities.

“I think the immediate figure will be at least P16.2 billion, as an initial tranche of programs. We can definitely consider appropriating such funds for a special budget, if the government so asks,” Salceda added.

“Ultimately, infrastructure is a reflection of how you value human life and which parts of an area will see more economic growth,” Salceda said.

Permanent housing

MEANWHILE, Salceda joined the call to include permanent rehousing and relocation in government’s infrastructure plan.

He noted that “560,000 houses were totally damaged by the typhoon,” citing partial statistics from local incident reports.

“Rehabilitation must therefore involve building roads, support infrastructure such as schools and health-care facilities, and new housing in areas that are safer from natural and geohazards,” Salceda added.

“We have to shift from temporary evacuation to permanent rehousing. As we have seen in both Yolanda and now in Odette, even evacuation has its own faults when the evacuation facilities are not resilient,” Salceda said.

Earlier, Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte urged the Palace to include the construction of permanent and durable evacuation centers in government’s six-month rehabilitation plan for provinces devastated by Typhoon Odette.

Citing the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Villafuerte said over 285,000 people or nearly 71,000 families spent their Christmas in a total of 1,204 evacuation centers across 10 regions affected by Odette.

According to the lawmaker, the initial construction of these permanent evacuation centers can be sourced from the P10 billion that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said would be made available for the rehabilitation of Odette-ravaged provinces.

“Rehabilitation should not only cover the reconstruction of typhoondamaged infrastructure, but should also consider adaptation measures to help safeguard people from future calamities,” Villafuerte said.

President Duterte declared a state of calamity on December 21 in six Odette-battered areas, including Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan or Mimaropa, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, and Northern

Mindanao and Caraga.

Earlier, Villafuerte welcomed the passage by the House of Representatives of a measure paving the way for the construction of such permanent evacuation centers across the country, especially in his disaster-prone home region of Bicol, and appealed to senators to immediately consider passing a counterpart bill in the Senate to benefit would-be displaced families in future natural calamities.

Under House Bill 8990, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will be in charge of building the evacuation sites, while local city and municipal governments shall be responsible for running and maintaining the centers.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) will serve as the lead agency.

Evacuation centers have to be constructed in all cities and municipalities to serve as immediate and temporary shelter for those evacuated or displaced by emergencies such as typhoons, flood and fire, among others, the bill states.

Under the measure, evacuation centers should withstand wind speed of at least 300 kilometers per hour (kph) and moderate seismic activity of at least 8.0-magnitude, said Villafuerte, a principal author of the bill.