NE suffers P2.3-B damage due to Santi -- PDRRMC

CABANATUAN CITY – The province of Nueva Ecija, considered the country’s rice granary, lost a total of P2.3 billion worth of crops, infrastructure and flood control systems in the wake of typhoon Santi with the damage expected to breach the P3-billion mark because of the devastation on properties.

          In a final damage assessment report by the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, a copy of which was obtained by The STAR Friday, the total damage was placed at P2,388,900,715.34.

          Dr. Abraham Pascua, PDRRMC co-chairman, said the figure was arrived at after validating the field reports submitted by local government units in the five cities and 27 municipalities in the province. “This damage assessment report is final, official and validated,” Pascua said.

          The figure was considerably lower than estimates based on initial ocular inspection.           Earlier, Gov. Aurelio Umali, PDRRMC chairman, said initial assessment placed the damage at P2.7 billion.

          But disaster officials said the actual damage could shoot up to P3 billion if damage to properties would be included as 75,914 houses were damaged in the entire province, which has been declared a calamity area.

          Pascua said they could not possibly quantify yet the damage on properties.

          Based on PDRRMC figures, the fourth congressional district comprising Gapan City and the towns of Cabiao, Gen. Tinio, Jaen, Penaranda, San Antonio, San Isidro and San Leonardo accounts for the biggest crop damage of P741.8 million representing 33 percent of the province-wide total.

          This was followed by the third congressional district covering the cities of Cabanatuan and Palayan and the towns of Bongabon, Gabaldon, Gen. Natividad, Laur and Sta. Rosa which suffered P549.57 million in crop damage and the first congressional district (Aliaga, Cuyapo, Guimba, Licab, Nampicuan, Quezon, Sto. Domingo, Talavera and Zaragoza) which sustained P549.52 million in crop damage.

The second congressional district (Munoz City, San Jose City, Carranglan, Llanera, Lupao, Pantabangan, Rizal and Talugtug) registered the lowest crop damage at P385 million.

Crops cover rice, corn, vegetables, high-value crops and livestock.

In term of rice, the province lost P1.9 billion, P3.7 million worth of corn, P141.2 million worth of vegetables, P160.9 million worth of high-value crops and P241 million worth of livestock.

Two cities and four towns lost at least P100 million worth of palay each. Cabanatuan was the hardest-hit, losing P149.3 million worth of palay, followed by Sta. Rosa (P129.4 million), Guimba (P128.5 million), San Antonio (P127.6 million), Gapan City (P109.8 million) and Cabiao (P102.7 million).

In terms of infrastructure, damage was placed at P162.9 million involving P134.6 million worth of road networks and P28.3 million in flood control systems. Of the road networks, P84 million (62%) involve municipal roads and P50.5 million (38%) involve provincial roads.

Pascua said of the 75,914 damaged houses, some 15,930 were totally damaged while 59,984 partially damaged. This affected 111,915 families or 513,159 persons.

Jaen recorded the most number of damaged houses with 11,649 followed by Cabanatuan (8,656) and Zaragoza (8,371).

Cabanatuan registered the most number of affected families with 32,897 or 161,896 persons followed by Aliaga (13,165 families or 72,324 persons), Jaen (11,649 families or 46,596 persons) and Zaragoza (10,689 families or 28,087 persons).

The provincial government has been distributing roofing sheets to the affected families. – Manny Galvez