The province of Nueva Ecija, considered the country's rice granary,
lost a total of P2.3 billion worth of crops, infrastructure and flood
control systems in the wake of typhoon Santi with the damage expected to
breach the P3-billion mark because of the devastation on properties.
In
a final damage assessment report by the Provincial Disaster Risk
Reduction and Management Council, a copy of which was obtained by The
Star Friday, the total damage was placed at P2,388,900,715.34.
Dr
Abraham Pascua, PDRRMC co-chairman, said the figure was arrived at
after validating the field reports submitted by local government units
in the five cities and 27 municipalities in the province. "This damage
assessment report is final, official and validated," Pascua said.
The
figure was considerably lower than estimates based on initial ocular
inspection. Earlier, Gov. Aurelio Umali, PDRRMC chairman, said initial
assessment placed the damaged at P2.7 billion.
But
disaster officials said the actual damaged could shoot up to P3 billion
if damaged to properties would be included as 75,914 houses were damaged
in the entire province, which has been declared a calamity area.
Pascua
said they could not possibly quantify yet the damaged on properties.
Based on PDRRMC figures, the fourth congressional district comprising
Gapan City and the towns of Cabiao, Gen. Tinio, Jaen, Penaranda, San
Antonio, San Isidro, and San Leonardo accounts for the biggest crop
damage of P741.8 million representing 33 percent of the province-wide
total.
This was followed by the third congressional
district covering the cities of Cabanatuan and Palayan and the towns of
Bongabon, Gabaldon, Gen Natividad, Laur and Sta Rosa which suffered
P549.57 million in crop damage and the first congressional district
(Aliaga, Cuyapo, Guimba, Licab, Nampicuan, Quezon, Sto Domingo, Talavera
and Zaragoza) which sustained P549.52 million in crop damage.
The
second congressional district (Muñoz Cci. City, San Jose City,
Carranglan, Llanera, Lupao, Pantabangan, Rizal and Talugtog registered
the lowest crop damage at P385 million.
Crops cover
rice, corn, vegetables, high-value crops and livestock. In term of rice,
the province lost P1.9 billion, P3.7 million worth of corn, P141.2
million worth of vegetables, P160.9 million worth of high-value crops
and P241 million worth of livestock.
Two cities and
four towns lost at least P100 million worth of palay each. Cabanatuan
was the hardest hit, losing P149.3 million worth of palay, followed by
Sta Rosa (P129.4 million,) Guimba ((128.5 million,) San Antonio (P127.6
million), Gapan City (P109.8 million), and Cabiao (P102.7 million.)
In
terms of infrastructure, damage was placed at P162.9 million involving
P134.6 million worth of road networks and P28.3 million in flood control
systems. Of the road networks, P84 million (68%) involve municipal
roads and P50.5 million (38%) involve provincial roads.
Pascua
said of the 75,914 damaged houses, some 15,930 were totally damaged
while 59,984 partially damaged. This affected 111,915 families or
513,159 persons.
Jaen recorded the most number of damaged houses with 11,649 followed by Cabanatuan (8,656) and Zaragoza (8,371.)
Cabanatuan
registered the most number of affected families with 32,897 or 161,896
persons followed by Aliaga (13,165 families or 72,324 persons,) and
Zaragoza (10,689 families of 28,087 persons.) The provincial government
has been distributing roofing sheets to the affected families.
