Baguio extends P1 million aid to quake-stricken Abra

City officials granted financial assistance amounting to P1 million from the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management quick response fund of the local government to different municipalities of Abra which were badly battered by the magnitude 7 earthquake last July 27, 2022.

Under Ordinance No. 58, series of 2022, the authority to grant the aforesaid financial assistance to the different municipalities of Abra chargeable against the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management quick response fund had been approved for immediate release to the quake-stricken areas.

Last July 27, 2022, 8:43 am, a magnitude 7 earthquake shook the various provinces in northwestern Luzon. The quake’s epicenter was recorded in the northwestern portion of Abra with residents experiencing intensity 7 tremor which had been classified as destructive based on the criteria of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology intensity scale.

The earthquake had a depth of more or less 17 kilometers based on the institute’s latest update.

After the major earthquake, the Abra provincial government reported that a good number of roads were heavily damaged while there were also landslides and collapsed structures in various municipalities of the province.

The financial assistance will be given to the municipalities in Abra that were declared under a state of calamity pursuant to Sangguniang Panlalawigan Resolution No. 180, series of 2022.

Earlier, the said amount was certified available by the city’s local finance committee where the same will be chargeable against the quick response fund under the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) of this year’s annual budget.

The council asserted that it has been a practice of the local government in countless occasions of extending financial assistance to cities, municipalities per provinces which had been struck by natural or man-made calamities, a tradition of support and thoughtfulness and in reciprocation of what other local government units from various parts of the country had extended to the city when it was battered by the intensity 7.9 killer earthquake that struck most cities in Northern Luzon on July 16, 1990. – Dexter A. See