Congress urged to create P15-B rehab fund for quake-hit areas

Congress should allocate P15 billion from calamity funds in the proposed 2014 national budget for the rehabilitation efforts in quake-hit areas in Central Visayas, Sen. Bam Aquino said Wednesday.

Aquino said he will propose an amendment to the 2014 spending plan that will create the P15-billion rehabilitation fund once the proposed national budget is tackled on the Senate floor in the coming weeks.

"Nakita naman natin kung gaano kagrabe ang damage, 'yung dami ng tao na namatay sa earthquake. We are hoping that we can earmark this fund, na makuha natin itong P15 billion na ito para makatulong," the neophyte senator told reporters in an interview.

The Department of Budget and Management website, however, showed that the government only plans to allocate P7.5 billion in calamity funds next year.

Aquino said bulk of his proposed fund should be used to rehabilitate heritage churches and other tourism sites in Bohol province that were heavily damaged by Tuesday morning's magnitude-7.2 earthquake.

The earthquake, which was also felt in several provinces in the Visayas, left 107 people dead, according to the latest report of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. The earthquake also left in rubble several heritage churches in Bohol and Cebu, which had stood for over three centuries.

Aquino said the calamity fund should also be tapped to repair infrastructure and establishments destroyed by the tremor.

The P2.268-trillion proposed national budget for next year is still undergoing committee deliberations at the Senate. The House of Representatives has already passed the budget proposal late last month. — Andreo Calonzo/KBK, GMA News