MANILA, (PNA) — The government has ample savings it can use to replenish the dwindling calamity and contingency funds, Pres. Benigno Aquino III said Monday.
At the sidelines of an event he attended at the Solaire Resort and Casino, Aquino said the government still has P176 million in calamity funds and P823 million contingency fund.
He said the funds won’t be enough to rehabilitate quake-damaged provinces in Central Visayas, particularly Bohol but Aquino said the government has ample savings to replenish it. He said the government would need P7 billion to rehabilitate these areas.
“That’s roughly about a billion. ‘Yung kulang, dun natin kukunin from the savings to augment both items… You can use the savings to replenish the calamity and the contingency [funds],” he said.
He said the drying up of the calamity fund is due to the calamities that struck the country this year.
“Sa calamity fund, we still have P176 million. ‘Wag natin kalimutan mayroong Habagat, ‘yong Zamboanga, marami ang pinaggamitan nitong calamity funds,” he said.
He also assured quake victims that the government is doing its best to ensure that enough aid is given to them.
He said more than 100,000 food packs have been distributed in the provinces of Bohol and Cebu, two of the heavily damaged areas of the 7.2 magnitude quake that hit Central Visayas last week.