President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. wants the national government to "take the load off" the province of Albay in terms of quick response funding amid the Mayon Volcano restiveness. President Marcos leads a situation briefing amid the Mayon Volcano restiveness in Legazpi City, Albay on June 14, 2023. (Photo courtesy of PPA Pool/Yummie Dingding)
Marcos made the statement during a situation briefing on Mayon Volcano in Legazpi City, Albay on Wednesday night, June 14. "I just wanted to take note once again of the capability of the province for the quick response funds—yung (the) 14 days. Wag na natin paabutin ng 14 days, huwag na natin ubusin yung pera ng LGU (Let us not wait for 14 days, let's not wait until the LGU runs out of funds)," Marcos said. "Kung pwede na tayong pumasok, pumasok na tayo (If we can intervene, let's finally intervene). Take the load off the province and take the load off the municipalities because very limited lang naman 'yan (their funds are very limited)," he added. The President said he brought the matter up as response action on Mayon restiveness may take 45 to 90 days. "I bring up the funding for quick response because mukha talagang (it looks like) the working number is 45 days which means minimum is 45 days and possibly it will be 90 days. We're talking 6 weeks to 12 weeks, this is not a short time," he said. The chief executive also asked for the local government units' help in identifying areas that need urgent help while mobilizing national government resources to intervene in the province's response action. "Ang hihingiin lang namin sa mga chief executives is that tulungan n'yo na lang kami to identify the areas na critical na priority. Kayo magsasabi sa amin kung saan dapat unahin, gaano karami all of that kasi kayo nakaalam dun sa situation on the ground (We will only ask the chief executives to help us in identifying critical areas. Tell us what areas to prioritize, how many, all of that because you are the ones who know what's happening on the ground)," Marcos said. During the one hour and 40-minute situation briefing, the President also said the response action the government is doing now amid the volcanic unrest is "satisfactory," noting the zero casualty. "I think that the response that we have put together is satisfactory that we were able to prepare and we were able to achieve so far yung sinasabi ng province na walang casualty (what the province is telling that there is no casualty). Patuloy natin (We will continue with that), we will follow that principle in everything that we are doing," he said.