BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The provincial government of Negros Occidental is asking the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) for a detailed plan on where its proposed P15-million El Niño budget would be used.
Provincial Administrator Rayfrando Diaz said the budget plan that the OPA submitted was too generalized.
El Niño is a weather pattern characterized by long dry spells and less rainfall.
Diaz assured residents of Negros Occidental that the provincial government has sufficient funds to finance programs designed to counter the adverse effects of a long dry spell such as on the agriculture industry.
Earlier, OPA head Dr. Edmundo Raul Causing said they were also mulling to form a provincial El Niño taskforce to lead all activities addressing El Niño-related concerns.
According to Causing, they already started surveying local government units with large swathes of rice fields as part of preparations.
OPA also recently met with local rice farmers and listened to their plans and suggestions to help minimize the effects of the dry conditions. It also gave farmers options on how the provincial government could help them.
Local government units in Western Visayas were earlier told by the Department of Agriculture to form their respective El Niño taskforce early to help mitigate calamities related to the dry conditions.
The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said the probability of the El Niño phenomenon occurring within the next two months has reached 70 percent.
Analiza Solis, PAGASA’s Climate Monitoring and Prediction Section chief, warned that aside from drought, the public must also prepare for extreme weather when El Niño occurs, adding intense tropical cyclones were observed in the past.
“Kapag mayroong ganitong paparating na El Niño, historically po mas matindi po ang ating habagat, maraming ulan ang dinudulot ng habagat natin,” she said.
“Hindi kami nananakot, but then iyon pong mga nangyari during (typhoons) ‘Ondoy’ (and) ‘Pepeng’, that was El Niño,” she added, referring to the tropical cyclones that happened a week apart in 2009.
Amid the looming El Niño, Department of Energy undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella assured that the power supply is enough to keep up with the demand in the country./PN
