THE Bacolod City Council approved the P143 million Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) fund for 2018.
The fund was approved during the regular session last week.
Councilor Caesar Distrito, chairperson of the City Council committee on finance, said the 2018 DRRM fund amounting to P112.5 million is based on the approved 2018 annual budget of the city.
He said the unexpended balances in the 2017 DRRM fund amounting to
P33.957 million, accruing to the Special Trust Fund of 2018.
"The Quick Response Fund that was approved is P63 million which can only be used if there is a declaration of a state of calamity," he added.
Distrito noted that the City Risk Reduction Management Office (CDRRMO) will be improving its disaster and rescue response by buying additional equipment like two units of a brand new ambulance, two units of 10-wheeler rescue vehicles and a backhoe loader combined with a total value of P 23.5 million.
The budget also includes flood control/storm surge mitigation program amounting to P3.8 million; construction/rehabilitation of evacuation centers at Villa Esperanza, Barangay Tangub and Kaisahan, Barangay Sum-ag, P5 million; shoreline protection program in Barangays Pahanocoy, Sum-ag, Tangub, Banago and Singcang-Airport, P 8 million; construction/improvement of drainage systems at Barangays Handumanan, Mansilingan, Pahanocoy, Sum-ag, Singcang-Airport and Taculing, P10 million; dengue outbreak and prevention program, P3 million; emergency stockpiling of food and non-food supplies for calamity victims, P 1.2 million; and establishment of hybrid weather monitoring system and other community based early warning system, P1 million. (MAP/VoxPop Bacolod)