Congress urged to set aside bigger amount of calamity funds under 2021 budget

Camarines Sur Representative Luis Raymund Villafuerte is appealing to Congress to set aside a bigger amount of calamity funds in the proposed P4.5-trillion national budget for 2021 to aid areas hit by Super Typhoon Rolly particularly the Bicol Region.

In a statement, Villafuerte said the Senate and the House of Representatives may consider realigning non-priority outlays in the 2021 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) to possibly augment the calamity funds for the hardest-hit areas of Rolly.

“I am appealing to my fellow lawmakers to look into possibly realigning for calamity funds  a portion of proposed GAB allocations for  programs and projects other than those intended for COVID-19 response,” said Villafuerte, “given the great damage wrought by Super Typhoon Rolly on infrastructure, agriculture and business in CamSur and other provinces in Bicol and Southern Luzon.”

According to Villafuerte, local government units who bore the brunt of Rolly are likely in need of calamity funds as early as now as their allocations may have already been depleted due to their COVID-19-related initiatives.

Camarines Sur, for instance, “needs all the aid and other resources it can get from both the government and the private sector as it is reeling from the triple whammy of Typhoons Rolly and Quinta, which struck the province in the previous weekend, and the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.

“The executive and legislative branches need to work together in getting the cyclone-battered provinces back on their feet at the soonest time possible,” Villafuerte said.

"The absence of such a recovery plan would be a drag on the national government’s efforts for the domestic economy to bounce back from the fallout of the coronavirus-induced global health and economic crises," he added.

Senate Committee on Finance chair Sonny Angara said his panel is looking into the possibility of increasing the government's calamity funds in the next fiscal year.

“We are currently studying the possibility of supplementing the calamity funds for 2021. We are looking for fund sources for realignment at the moment,” he said.

Villafuerte welcomed this development and hoped that the other senators would agree to Angara’s proposal.

The Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Camarines Sur on Monday placed the province under state of calamity to allow the provincial government to use available public funds for relief and other forms of assistance to families and individuals affected by Super Typhoon Rolly.

Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal No. 5 was raised over Camarines Sur last Sunday due to the typhoon. — Erwin Colcol/RSJ, GMA News