Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) Secretary Jose Rizalino Acuzar has ordered the release of cash assistance to families who lost their homes during the onslaught of typhoon “Egay” last week.
Acuzar said he already ordered two of his undersecretaries to personally supervise the downloading of the funds to their regional offices, particularly in Northern Luzon, which was severely devastated by the weather disturbance.
"We must focus our efforts now in assisting families who lost their homes. Let's expedite the delivery because the affected families need our assistance,” said Acuzar.
Initially, he said the DHSUD Central Office in Quezon City is making available P23 million for the emergency assistance to residents whose houses were totally damaged.
As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, a total of 1,954 residential structures had been totally damaged by the typhoon, mostly from Regions 1, 2 and Cordillera Administrative Region.
Acuzar also instructed DHSUD attached agencies, particularly the National Housing Authority (NHA) and the Home Development Mutual Fund or Pag-IBIG Fund to start providing assistance.
The National Housing Authority (NHA) earlier allotted P50 million from its emergency housing assistance program while the Pag-IBIG Fund has started offering calamity loans with lower interest rate per annum to "Egay" victims.
"We will be working closely with local government units in the affected areas to ensure the timely and transparent delivery of our assistance," said Acuzar.