SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The municipality of Laua-an has been declared under the state of calamity during a special session held by the municipal council due to the damage caused by severe tropical storm ‘’Opong’’ (international name ‘’Bualoi’’).

Mayor Aser Baladjay said in an interview Monday that he had requested the municipal council to convene on Sept. 28 to declare their town under a state of calamity to enable them to use their P12-million calamity fund to respond to the needs of their constituents.

“Our municipality suffered severe damage,” he said.

Baladjay said 2,101 families, or 8,271 persons were affected by Opong.

“We have already initially provided relief goods worth P1-million out of our calamity fund to the affected families,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Municipal Agriculture Office (MAO) estimated P15 million in losses in rice and sugar lands.

“The rice farms and sugar lands affected is about 30 hectares. both in lowland and upland areas,” Baladjay said.

He said about 20 houses along the Paliwan River and three other rivers were partially or totally damaged.

“We intend to relocate the families whose houses had been damaged to safer ground just within their barangays.”

He appealed to the National Housing Authority (NHA) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for assistance.

The Antique Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council is seeking help from the national government as it only has P34 million in calamity funds.

“The P34 million may not be enough to respond to the needs of the 48,203 families, or 164,267 individuals, from 18 municipalities once the province declares a state of calamity,” Antique Gov. Paolo Everardo Javier said in an interview on Monday.

He said there were also 593 damaged houses.

Also needing repairs are Bacalan Bridge in Sebaste town, which connects the southern and northern parts of Antique, and a flood control project in Camancijan, Culasi, which was first damaged during typhoon ‘’Crising’’ in July, Javier said.

“I hope that the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) and all other departments could cooperate and help us recover since we could not use all our calamity funds with the more typhoons still being expected before the year ends,” Javier said. (PNA)