DTI CARAGA VOWS TO ASSIST ODETTE-HIT TOWN IN SURIGAO NORTE

Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Caraga, through Regional Director Gay Tidalgo, expressed its commitment to assist micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that have been heavily affected by Typhoon Odette in this municipality. After its landfall in the province on December 16, 2021, Odette swiped off establishments, affecting 285 businesses in the municipality. “We are truly disheartened with what has happened and we cannot imagine how you manage to live by this reality that Odette has left,” said Tidalgo during the municipality’s Recovery and Rehabilitation Plan (RRP) Conference that was attended by 45 potential funding agencies last January 19. Tidalgo assured that these MSMEs will be assisted through the Department’s livelihood seeding programs that will provide starter kits to “help MSMEs recover from their loss.”

“We have so far profiled 200 MSMEs in San Francisco that will soon be provided with livelihood kits amounting to P8,000 each and we promise to soon profile the remaining 85 so that they may be assisted too,” RD Tidalgo said. Tidalgo also added that a special no-interest loan window under the Department’s financing arm Small Business Corporation (SB Corp), will soon be opened to cater to the MSMEs and other agricultural and tourism-based businesses.

To help in rebuilding the residents houses, DTI

Caraga will also soon launch a Diskwento Caravan that will sell construction materials at a cheaper price. “We would want to commend the municipality of San Francisco for being the first municipality in the region to come up with this very comprehensive Recovery and Rehabilitation Plan after typhoon Odette hit,” Tidalgo said, adding that the plan will help the municipality rise again as it taps on the programs of different government agencies. Said RRP aimed to address the social economic impacts of the typhoon especially on agriculture, livestock and poultry, fisheries, trade and commerce, association and cooperatives, tourism, and price control. “It is my strong desire to immediately restore the situation of the municipality back to its normal situation because watching the sufferings and hardships of my constituents every day is a burden in my heart; I am thankful to all of our national government agencies who expressed their commitment to realize the indicative projects of this plan,” said Municipal Mayor Val Pinat.

Pinat added that as of press time, 4,019 families in the municipality have lost their homes and properties, and are still sheltered in the evacuation centers, relying mainly on food ration.

“Thousands of individuals in the municipality are jobless and have lost their main economic source of income. This is the reason why we crafted a systematic, organized, and proactive RRP that will primarily outline the rebuilding of homes and communities and reviving the livelihood of the people,” Pinat said. Aside from DTI, agencies that also expressed their commitments during the conference include the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Agriculture (DA), Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor (PCUP), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), among others. (Mike Ariel P. Plaza, DTICaraga/PIA-Caraga)

Philippine Army’s mobile kitchen deployed Odette-affected families in Surigao City

The 901st Infantry Brigade, 9th Infantry Division, Philippine Army, with the 4th Civil-Military Operations (CMO) Battalion, and 10th Forward Service Support Unit (FSSU) deployed the Philippine Army’s Mobile Kitchen at Barangay Lipata, Surigao City, Surigao del Norte on January 20, 2022. In a Facebook post made by the 4th CMO Battalion, the mobile kitchen served around two hundred food packs with bottled water. “As the affected families begin the reconstruction of their damaged houses, interventions to alleviate their plight are very important, as such, the Philippine Army utilized its mobile kitchen to help residents through the provision of free meals,” they said in their post. The success of the activity was made possible through a collaboration with the local government unit of Surigao City, the Propelling Our Inherited Nation Through Our Youth (POINTY) Inc., Project Binuligay of Bukidnon, 10th Forward Service Support Unit (FSSU) under Ltc. Vladimir DC Sta. Maria, the 42nd CMO Company troopers led by 1Lt. Alvin Jay Carulasan, currently under operational control of the 901st Infantry Brigade. “We continue to support and participate in activities for the benefit of our countrymen. The dedication and sincerity displayed by our soldiers contributed much for the upliftment of the condition of our fellow Caraganons affected by the onslaught of Super Typhoon ODETTE,” their post read. (4th CMO Battalion, 4ID, PA/PIA-Surigao del Norte)