Tacloban City – Secretary Mar Roxas of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Friday (May 15, 2015) urged mayors to practice accountability in disbursing a total of 948 million pesos for repair and reconstruction of barangay facilities in Eastern Visayas that were damaged by Super typhoon Yolanda.
Speaking before local officials in Dulag, Leyte to whom he turned over the Advice of Debit Allotment (ADA) vouchers for projects under Recovery Assistance on Yolanda (RAY) 2, Secretary Roxas noted that government purposely downloaded the RAY funds to local government units to give residents work and enable the money revolve around the community.
He said this embodies the administration’s “Kayo ang boss ko” slogan since national government merely helps LGUs bring their dreams to reality.
The release of funds for 26 towns worth PhP449,152,163.52 in Leyte completed the PhP947,829,914.17 allocation for RAY 2 in Eastern Visayas. Last March, 31 towns in Biliran, Leyte, Samar and Eastern Samar received their RAY 2 funds totaling PhP498,677,750.65.
After his visit to Dulag wherein he also inspected its fully repaired market, municipal hall and civic centers worth 16.2 million pesos under RAY Batch 1, Secretary Roxas proceeded to the adjacent town of Mayorga.
There, Secretary Roxas lauded the sense of community that enabled the town to recover from the disaster and not only “Build Back Better” but also beautiful, referring to its two storey municipal hall repaired with 5.98 million pesos from RAY 1.
“Mula noon hanggang ngayon ang mga kababayan sa Leyte hindi tumiklop, hinde yumuko. Alam nating mahaba at hindi lang madalian ang ating tatahakin, pero dahil sa iyong pakikikapwa kaya ngayon mabilis ang pagbangon ninyo,” he said. Secretary Roxas at the same time assured them of the continuous support of national government as the province rises from destruction.
In the afternoon, Secretary Roxas likewise inspected the completed civic center in Baybay City worth 11.8 M pesos.
The next day, May 16, Secretary Roxas went to Gen. Macarthur for inspection of completed RAY projects (municipal hall, market and civic center) worth 6 million pesos. He also visited the completed Sagana at Ligtas na Tubig sa Lahat (SALINTUBIG) project in Llorente, Eastern Samar that has benefited 269 households.
In Eastern Visayas, about three out of four or 74 percent of RAY Batch 1 projects are already completed, revealed Dir. Pedro Noval Jr. of DILG-8. Another 16% are nearing completion (80-99%). The remaining ten percent of projects should be finished soon, added Dir. Noval.
It would be recalled that as early as April 10, 2014 DILG turned over to LGUs in the region, RAY Batch 1 funds totaling 938 million pesos to help restore the local economy and delivery of basic services. ###
