Aquino signs P14.6-B supplemental budget for disaster rehab

MANILA, Philippines - Before 2013 ended, Pres. Benigno Aquino III signed the P14.6-billion supplemental budget for the rehabilitation efforts in areas hit by recent disasters such as Super Typhoon "Yolanda," Malacanang said Thursday.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Sec. Sonny Coloma said in a press briefing that Aquino signed the budget last December 26.

The supplemental fund would be drawn from the unused Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel of the Senate and the House for 2013.

The amount will be tapped to boost the calamity funds that will be used in the rebuilding efforts in the disaster-hit areas.

Few weeks after Yolanda slammed into the country in November 8, Aquino certified as urgent the then proposed P14.6-billion supplemental budget as well as a joint resolution seeking to extend by a year the life of calamity-related funds in the 2013 General Appropriations Act.

The calamities cited in the measures’ explanatory notes include “but (are) not limited to” Super Typhoon Yolanda, Typhoons Labuyo, Odette, Pablo, Sendong, Santi and Vinta, the siege and unrest in Zamboanga City, and the magnitude 7.2 earthquake that jolted Bohol and Cebu.