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Govt may not have money to mitigate La Niña impact


Government may not have a working budget to mitigate the possible effects of the La Niña phenomenon, an unusual weather situation blamed for above normal rainfall in many countries including the Philippines. This was after officials from the departments of Agriculture, Agrarian Reform, and Environment, attending the La Niña Summit on Monday, failed to quote offhand their respective allocations for the weather phenomenon. The absence of a standby fund means the government may only have to depend on the P1-billion revolving fund of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (formerly National Disaster Coordinating Council) for the coming of La Niña. Private sector representatives who attended the summit were alarmed by this development. “We want to know if we have something to work on. In as much as we have identified measures of preparedness, not so much will be accomplished unless we have the corresponding budget," said Christian Monsod, co-convenor of the Climate Change Congress of the Philippines. Monsod was concerned that since nothing substantial came out of the first Climate Change Summit in 1995, “after fifteen years we should be able to do the right thing this time." Former Senator Aquilino Pimentel, also a co-convenor, said there should be a P100-billion trust fund for climate change-induced calamities, including those caused by La Niña. “I proposed a P100 billion in trust fund that the national government should set aside for climate change. But the fund should not be released unless there is a need, otherwise it may be diverted to other purposes," he said. The Department of Agrarian Reform warned that of the 69 provinces that would be affected by La Niña this wet season, 66 would be hit by the weather disturbance. Around 470,000 farmers in 500,000 hectares of farmland are expected to be affected by the prolonged wet spell. Based on a study by a local scientist at the Department of Agriculture, as much as 2.6 million hectares or 20 percent of the country’s 13 million agriculture lands are likely to be affected by climate-change induced floods. Other results of climate change such as water shortage, sharp decrease in agricultural productivity, infectious diseases due to heat stress, a large number of poor Filipinos in low-lying coastal areas are becoming “climate refugees", disappearance of small islands, coral bleaching, and decline in livestock production and fish catch. In 2009, flash floods in Luzon from tropical cyclones Ondoy and Pepeng caused $4.42 billion or P208 billion in damages to agriculture, property, and infrastructure. The amount was equivalent to 2.7 percent of the country's gross domestic product. —With Karl Kaufman/VS, GMANews.TV

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