Albay in State of Calamity Due to El Niño

LEGAZPI CITY, March 10 -- The provincial legislative board on Tuesday has placed Albay under a state of calamity due to El Niño phenomenon or dry spell which has affected close to 6,000 hectares of agricultural land in more than half of the 15 towns and three cities of the province.

The Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) declaration was a disaster mitigating measure to curb the negative effects of the dry spell that would affect the agricultural sector, including the health conditions of the community.

In a SP session, the Provincial Agricultural Services (PAS) chief sought the SP's approval to place selected towns and cities in the province under a state of calamity as these places are feeling the brunt of El Niño destroying some 5,581 hectares of agricultural land.

The dry-spell-affected areas are Pioduran, Oas, Polangui, Jovellar and Libon, all in the third district of the province; Daraga in the second district and the cities of Legazpi and Ligao, were also declared under a state of calamity.

The PAS in its recent El Niño Crop Damage report indicated that the damage brought by the dry spell has affected rice, corn and vegetable crops posting a production loss of 13,832.7 metric tons or equivalent to P178 million in the first two months of this year.

The PAS report said the loss is equal to 17 percent of the semestral agricultural output which virtually wipe out the same amount of 17 percent growth it posted under the Department of Agriculture FIELDS program last year.

In order for the provincial government to counter the effect of El Niño in the next four months, the Albay Public Safety and Emergency Management Office (APSEMO) and PAS recommended that a selective declaration of state of calamity in six towns and two cities affected to enable the utilization of a portion of calamity fund for mitigation measures on agricultural as well as on health interventions.

The SP is convinced of the PAS proposal instead of placing the entire province in a state of calamity to enable the local government units (LGUs) to use a portion of their calamity fund for mitigation measures on agricultural and health interventions.

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, said although the province was not included in the list of places to be affected by the El Niño phenomenon, but still "Albay cannot be complacent considering that we have experienced six months of rainfall below last year level and we are at the middle of El Niño areas."

Salceda issued earlier a directive to APSEMO and PAS to immediately conduct with agriculture sectors both in the province and in the region for impact assessment on agriculture output.

For health response, he instructed the Provincial Health Office (PHO) in coordination with the Department of Health (DOH) to assess the impact of water-borne diseases.

He instructed the APSEMO to draw up a response strategies and identify specific impacts on the areas El Niño hit provinces so pre-emptive measures could be initiated.

In the case of the provincial government, Salceda said "we will cap access to calamity fund to P5 million out of the P38 million and limit it to agricultural and health interventions."

The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) issued advisory that the provinces of Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte and Sorsogon are among the 23 provinces in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao regions that would be affected by the dry spell. (PNA)

Technorati Tags: Bikol News News