As Senate leaders committed to give top priority to passing the proposed 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) of P6.352 trillion with this week’s reopening of the 19th Congress, National Unity Party (NUP) president LRay Villafuerte has appealed to senators to consider including in next year’s national budget bill his proposed P20-billion outlay for the fast-track recovery and rehabilitation of his home region of Bicol that was the worst hit by severe tropical storm Kristine.
The former governor and now congressman representing Camarines Sur expressed the hope that the Senate would act favorably on his proposed P20-billion allocation in next year’s GAA bill as the first annual budget for a multi-year Bicol Recovery and Rehabilitation Fund (BRRF) to help Camarines Sur, which suffered the worst flooding ever, and the rest of his hardest-hit region get back on its feet at the soonest.
Villafuerte made this budget appeal to senators as Senate President Francis Escudero and Sen. Grace Poe-Llamanzares, who chairs the Senate finance committee, said separately that their chamber would prioritize deliberations on the proposed 2025 GAA as the bicameral Congress reopened on Monday following its over month-long break.
The former governor said that his proposed inclusion of the BRRF in next year’s budget plan jibes with Escudero’s statement that the 2025 GAA should already be “climate adapted and climate resilient.”
Poe-Llamanzares was quoted, meanwhile, as saying that she expects the Senate to wrap up its 2025 GAA deliberations before end-November.
“A special rehabilitation and recovery program and funding is crucial for putting Bicol back on its feet soon enough—in the same way that P10-billion was allocated in the 1990s, for instance, for an ad hoc Commission that was put up at that time to oversee the quick recuperation of Luzon provinces devastated by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo.”
Villafuerte said he also made his appeal to senators as President Marcos declared Nov. 4, in Proclamation No. 728, as a “Day of National Mourning,” to express solidarity with the bereaved families and loved ones of those who perished during Kristine’s onslaught.
“With the proposed 2025 GAA bill already passed by the House of Representatives before our Sept. 28-Nov. 3 congressional break, I am appealing to our senators to consider realigning funds or finding new fund sources for this proposed BRRF during their deliberations on their version of the 2025 national budget plan,” Villafuerte said.
“The House of Representatives under the leadership of Speaker Martin (Romualdez) could then concur with such a funding proposal in the bicam (bicameral conference committee) process that will happen later to reconcile a final 2025 GAA bill for ratification by both chambers and then for submission to Malacañan for the President’s approval and signature into law,” Villafuerte said.
“The single biggest undertaking that the government can carry out with this proposed BRRF, if and when it is approved by the Congress, is to revive the long-discontinued BRBDP (Bicol River Basin Development Program), which President Marcos himself, during his October visit to Camarines Sur, ordered the DPWH ( Department of Public Works and Highways) to ‘revisit’ as a long-term solution to the region’s chronic flooding,” Villafuerte said.
Given the worse-than-expected damage inflicted by Kristine, especially in Camarines Sur where most barangays were submerged for the first time ever in above-head or roof-level floods, Villafuerte said that, “A special rehabilitation and recovery program and funding is crucial for putting Bicol back on its feet soon enough—in the same way that P10-billion was allocated in the 1990s, for instance, for an ad hoc Commission that was put up at that time to oversee the quick recuperation of Luzon provinces devastated by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo.”
“The subsequent allocations for the proposed multi-year BRRF could be taken up later by senators and House members, once the total typhoon damages and the commensurate necessary rehabilitation, resettlement, repair and recovery programs and projects have already been ascertained by the appropriate government agencies in consultation with the private sector,” he said.
As of Nov. 4, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported that typhoons Kristine and Leon had flooded a total of 841 areas—killing 150 people; causing P7.45 billion-worth of damages to infrastructure and P5.9 billion-worth of damages to agriculture; and putting 93 cities and municipalities under a state of calamity.
Fifteen (15) of the casualties were in Bicol, which absorbed most of the devastation wrought by the two typhoons, as the same NDRRMC report said that 3.12 million people and 2,806 barangays in the region were affected; 93 cities and municipalities were put under a state of calamity; and P5.04 billion-worth of infrastructure and P2.9 billion-worth of agricultural commodities were damaged.
Villafuerte said his proposed multi-year BRRF is aligned with President Marcos’ assurance last week that his Administration would continue assisting calamity-affected Filipinos until their lives return to normal and to strengthen communities against the worsening effects of climate change.
In a vlog during Undas last Nov. 1, the President said: “Mga kababayan, hindi tayo titigil hangga’t hindi pa nakakabangon ang lahat. Walang pagod ang ating mga ahensya. Naririnig namin ang inyong saklolo at ginagawa namin ang lahat upang mailagay kayo sa mas mabuting kalagayan … sa isang Bagong Pilipinas, lalo pa natin pagbubutihin ang ating pagtugon sa hamon ng climate change.”
Villafuerte said the establishment of a multiyear BRRF to bankroll, among others, the revival of the BRBDP, is in step with President Marcos’ desire for our country to develop expertise in disaster risk reduction to mitigate the impacts of climate change and reduce casualties from typhoons and other recurring natural disasters.
“Bahagi na talaga ito ng pamumuhay natin. Itinuturing na high-risk ang ating bansa sa epekto ng climate change,” the President said in his Undas vlog. “Kaya kailangan natin maging magaling sa larangan na ito. Disaster risk reduction, both the public at saka private sector. Para naman mabawasan ang mga napapahamak sa mga ganitong uri ng sakuna.”
The President expressed concern that more communities previously unaffected by flooding are now experiencing it for the first time. “Dahil nga ang panahon ay nagbabago na: ang tag-init ay sobrang init; ang tag-ulan grabe naman ang ulan, record-breaking rainfall, ika nga. Talagang extreme weather conditions. May mga lugar na hindi pa binabaha kahit kailan pero lumulubog na ngayon. Sa maikli at mabilis na panahon, tumataas kaagad ang tubig dahil sa bigat ng pagbuhos ng ulan,” he said.
Poe-Llamanzares said that her finance committee would hold interpellations on the GAA bill from Nov. 6 to Nov. 19, and then followed by deliberations on the outlays of agencies such as the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), and Departments of Finance (DOF) and of Budget and Management (DBM).
“We are anticipating the budget to be passed on third and final reading on Nov. 26. By then, we expect the bicam to be held Nov. 28 to 30,” the lady senator was quoted as saying in a radio interview.
Villafuerte said the single biggest undertaking that the government could work on with his hoped-for approval of the BRRF is the revival, as the President himself brought up in his Oct. 26 Camarines Sur visit, of the BRBDP, which was established by Mr. Marcos’ father—the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.—in 1973 by virtue of Executive Order (EO) No. 412.
The BRBDP, which had its principal office in Camarines Sur, was shelved, though, by the then-Aquino administration in 1986.
Villafuerte suggested that the BRRF could be tapped, too, to bankroll the construction of permanent, climate-proof mega evacuation centers in high places unreached by floods to provide safe shelter to evacuees.
At present, he said, many of the existing evacuation centers have not been ideal temporary facilities to house evacuees as these have been flooded, too, just like the original homes that the typhoon victims in the province had abandoned to flee Kristine’s wrath.
Camarines Sur suffered its worst flooding last month as Kristine unleashed in a single day—according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa)—711 millimeters (mm) of rainfall, or a third more than the previous record of 455 mm of rains that typhoon Ondoy brought with it in 2009.
Over the three-day period from Oct. 20 to 23, the accumulated rainfall that “Kristine” dumped in the province reached 931 mm.
The Bicol River Basin (BRB) covers 963 barangays in 50 municipalities and cities in Camarines Sur, Albay and Camarines Norte.
Villafuerte said that 87% of the river, which is the 8th largest in the country, is in Camarines Sur, with its second and fifth districts making up the lowest points and natural catch basins of the BRB—such that many of the villages there are totally flooded even with minimal rainfall.
Kristine affected 1.36 million people in 759 of Camarines Sur’s over 1,000 barangays, inundating 488 of these villages, of which 216 were totally submerged in floodwaters, said the congressman who represents the province’s second district.
While lawmakers are hopefully crafting this multi-year rehabilitation and recovery Fund plan, Villafuerte appealed to the national government that aside from funds for the immediate dredging activities at the Bicol River, the DBM could likewise release additional funds for rebuilding and/or repair of the totally or partially damaged houses of almost 60,000 families; for medical assistance to combat the potential outbreaks of diarrhea and leptospirosis; and for assistance to about 165,000 agriculture and fishery workers.
Villafuerte said that with BRRF funding, the Marcos government could create an inter-agency council that could identify proper water management structures or water-impounding facilities to check heavy flooding.
And while lawmakers are still tackling the proposed BRRDP in the budget deliberations in the Congress, Villafuerte appealed to the DBM to consider releasing extra funds at once for essential projects, such as dredging and riverbank protection activities to improve the capacity of the Bicol River and reduce its flood risks that have been getting worse by the year.
Villafuerte proposed to then-President Duterte five years ago that a viable solution to the recurring flooding in the region was the dredging and desilting of the BRB, which encompasses eight (8) sub-basins or watersheds—Libmanan-Pulantana, Ragay Hills, Thiris, Naga-Yabo, Pawili River, Waras-Lalo, Naporog and Quinali—that are all in Camarines Sur.
Villafuerte said he brought up anew his Duterte-era proposal to Mr. Marcos during the President’s visit last Oct. 26, and it was fortunate that the President was receptive to the idea and then directed DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan to review the defunct BRBDP.
