De Venecia puts up fund for landslide victims

The House leadership is putting up a "rapid reaction fund" to help victims of last Friday’s landslide in Southern Leyte, Speaker Jose de Venecia said Saturday. Mobilizing both the majority coalition and minority congressmen, Speaker De Venecia asked lawmakers to donate P100,000 each for the fund to help in the rescue, recovery and rehabilitation efforts. The Speaker made the first contribution of P250,000 and Deputy Speaker Raul del Mar donated P100,000 as they launched the fund drive on Friday. De Venecia said congressmen from the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD) and majority coalition and those from the opposition could contribute between P50,000 to P100,000 each from their public works and countryside funds. This could put up as much as P23 million in rapid reaction fund, the Speaker said. "The tragedy demands that each of us must respond immediately and come to the aid of our stricken countrymen in Southern Leyte," he said. The Speaker will send the new Lakas CMD Secretary-General, Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri to St. Bernard to assess of the situation. Zubiri is also director of the Philippine National Red Cross. The initial donation to the fund would be used to purchase medicine, rice, canned goods and clothes. More than 100 survivors have been rescued but possibly hundreds of others are believed buried under the mud. House Committee on Natural Resources chairman Agusan del Norte Rep. Leovigildo Banaag has asked Senate approval of the One-Billion Trees Act which the House already approved. Senate approval is a head start to the reforestation program in the mountains of Luzon, the Visayas provinces and Mindanao. Banaag said the House approved the bill during the 12th Congress and again in the 13th Congress "because reforestation is the only effective reply to our denuded mountains." The St. Bernard tragedy is a grim reminder of the inaction on the bill that should have been passed years ago, he said. -GMANEWS.TV