The Fisherfolk activist group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) and stauch Anakpawis party list on Wednesday said Malacañang should immediately release a substantial amount from the P21.7 billion calamity funds of President Aquino alloted by Congress this year to address the immediate need of more than 1 million people affected by rains and heavy flood spawned by southwest monsoon all over the country.
In a statement Anakpawis party list vice chairperson Fernando Hicap and Pamalakaya vice chairman Salvador France  said the Office of the President is legally, politically and morally obligated to release calamity funds for thousands of farmers, fisherfolk and urban poor affected by Gener.
“President Aquino should ready the calamity funds upon request of people’s associations and local government units. The people fully deserve any appropriate assistance. The P21.7 billion calamity fund for 2012 belongs to them and not to Aquino and his financial keepers,” both leaders said in a joint statement.
Hicap and France noted that P7.5 billion was alloted for calamity funds and P14.2 billion was set aside for unprogrammed disaster risk and management activities.
“Malacañang should immediately release at least 50 percent of the P21.7 billion funds for victims and affected sectors,” they added.
According the latest bulletin issued by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), affected persons in Ilocos, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Mimaropa and National Capital Region were 267,850 families or 1,230,813 persons.
The NDRRMC also said displaced persons, who were outside and inside evacuation centers, were 163,007 families or 783,707 persons. The same bulletin said there were a total of 90 municipalities in Ilocos, Central Luzon, Calabarzon and NCR inundated by floods.
Meanwhile, Pamalakaya supported the demand of other sectors for the Aquino government to impose price control on basic commodities, including an indefinite halt on the increases in the prices of petroleum products, water and power utilities to enable workers and ordinary people to cope up with the current economic displacement brought about by the two-week non-stop rains and heavy flooding all over Metro Manila and other areas affected by typhoon Gener and long-running Habagat.