GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 13 Aug) – The provincial government of Sarangani has released some P2.
9 million in calamity assistance for the acquisition of a relocation site for around 160 families that were displaced by a flashflood in Glan town in 2011.
Sarangani Gov. Steve Chiongbian-Solon said the funds will be utilized to fund the purchase and initial development works of a four-hectare relocation site in Barangay Burias in Glan for the affected families.
He said the assistance, which he personally delivered to Glan Mayor Victor James Yap on Monday, was drawn from the provincial government’s calamity funds.
The governor said the local government earlier approved the acquisition of the relocation site based on a recommendation from the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO).
He said the relocation area is situated at the upper portion of sitio Kimangyaw in Barangay Burias.
In February 2011, some 182 houses situated along the coasts of Burias and nearby barangay Pangyan were destroyed by flashfloods and strong winds that also ravaged several fishing boats, agricultural crops and toppled main power lines.
The disaster was reported as one of the worst that hit the area in the last three decades and placed the whole town then under a state of calamity.
The affected families remained at the village’s coastal area that was earlier declared by the PDRRMO and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of Region 12 as a danger zone.
In a statement released by the Sarangani Information Office, Solon said they pushed for the relocation of the residents from the critical coastal area since “calamities are coming real time.”
While preparing for a long term solution to the problem, he said there is need “to move them (families) out of the danger zone.”
He said 160 households from Burias were identified as direct beneficiaries of the resettlement initiative.
The governor added that that PDRRMO is presently considering seeking additional assistance from national government agencies like the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the National Housing Authority for the implementation of a housing program at the resettlement site.
