Davao aids ‘Tisoy’ victims

Residents walk on a rice field with washed-up debris caused by Typhoon "Tisoy" in Ilagan, Isabela, on 5 December 2019. (AFP)

Help is on the way from Davao City for victims of Typhoon “Tisoy” after the city council approved a P7.8-million assistance sought by Mayor Inday Sara Duterte to aid Luzon-hit areas.

Davao City will give P1 million each to Northern Samar, Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, Camarines Sur, Sorsogon, Catanduanes, and Albay; P500,000 to Calbayog City in Samar; and P300,000 to Arteche town in Eastern Samar.

“The budget will come from our City Reduction Risk Management Funds. Under the law, we can use the fund to assist other areas if they will experience any calamity as long as they will declare a state of calamity,” the Presidential Daughtrt said.

Duterte said Davao City has been blessed as it seldom experiences a calamity, enabling the city to extend help to other local government units with their unused disaster fund.

“We might as well give it to other areas which are in great need,” the mayor said.

Since January, the city has already extended P94.4 million in total aid to calamity-affected areas. The amount comes from the Quick Response Fund (QRF), which is 30 percent of the disaster funds.

The city still has P36.5 million left in the QRF for 2019.

Tisoy lashed at Luzon and a few Visayas provinces on 2 and 3 December. It first made a landfall in Gubat, Sorsogon, which was placed under Signal No. 3.