The death toll in the Cordilleras, lashed this month by powerful Typhoon ‘‘Ompong,’’ has climbed up to 110, with 25 people still missing, according to the Cordillera Risk Reduction and Management Council on Thursday.
The confirmation coincided with the announcement by the Office of Civil Defense that it was already impossible to retrieve lives from underneath the rubble of a landslide that struck Barangay Ucab in Itogon, Benguet.
Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs Secretary Francis Tolentino agreed and called on the Department of Social Welfare and Development to step in.
In Ucab, the number of confirmed dead reached 64 while 16 people remained missing.
Meanwhile, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Thursday called on the Department of Education to prioritize their repair of 7,000 schools destroyed by Ompong.
He issued the call after the DepEd revealed some 7,007 schools in regions affected by Ompong, including the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas, Zamboanga, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, Cordillera Administrative Region, and Metro Manila, sustained damage totaling at least P2.65 billion.
“It’s no joke that more than seven million schools were destroyed. I hope the repair of these schools will be a priority because thousands of students would be in a pitiful situation,” said Gatchalian, vice chairman of the Senate Education Committee.
To hasten the repair, he hoped Education Secretary Leonor Briones would heed the recommendation of the Commission on Audit on the audit report of DepEd the previous year to use the BEFF budget.
Gatchalian was referring to the 2017 annual audit report of CoA for DepEd, which found that eight regions fell short of achieving the objective of improved physical facilities under DepEd’s BEFF for calendar years 2016 and 2017.
“Due to late issuance of sub-allotments from the Central Office, improper timing of projects during the schedule of classes and inadequate monitoring thereof resulted in the delayed completion of repair projects in 49 out of the 91 schools inspected and the poor workmanship/defects of the repairs done by contractors,” the audit report noted.
The BEFF is a lump sum amount appropriated annually starting in 2011 to address the classroom, water and sanitation facilities, and furniture requirements of schools.
“I hope that DepEd will ensure that allotment orders are issued by the Central Office on time and that regional and division offices are notified early about the allocated funds so that repair works are not unnecessarily delayed and the budget will not be underutilized,” Gatchalian said.
As of Sept. 20, data from DepEd showed there were 1,115 schools totally damaged by Ompong, while 1,804 schools suffered “major damage,” and another 4,088 had “minor” damage.