CATBALOGAN CITY, Samar, January (PIA) – Government agencies are taking care of the landslide victims in Catbalogan.
During the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Council meeting on January 15, provincial social welfare and development officer Luz Tacal said that DSWD asst. regional director Restituto Macuto personally gave the 22 families P10,000 each.
Reynaldo Guevarra, a Person with Disability (PWD) confirmed this information, as he tends to his mini store inside the evacuation center at the Samar Provincial Gym today.
Samar governor Sharee Ann Tan in a meeting on January 6 also promised to give P5,000.00 each to the families whose houses were totally damaged by the landslide.
It will be recalled that as Typhoon Seniang poured torrential rains, part of the mountain slopes of Barangay Mercedes collapsed to the highway, buried a passing van, and some houses built in the slope and on the bayside in the morning of December 30, 2014.
Presently, the evacuees are temporarily housed at the provincial gym where their food is supplied by the city government and the IOM-an international non-government organization.
It was also learned that their dead were given funeral services shouldered by the provincial government and the city government of Catbalogan City.
The two LGUs also plan to build bunkhouses for 100 families (the 22 at the gym included) in Barangay Payao, Catbalogan City where Catbalogan LGU will fund P 1 M, while the Samar LGU will supplement the fund requirement, the families will stay in the bunkhouses while the local governments are looking for permanent relocation sites. (vrc/nbq/PIA8-Samar)