ILOILO City – The Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) turned over financial assistance to family members of 10 victims, who perished in a sea mishap off Iloilo Strait last Aug. 3.
The distribution of checks worth P20,000 for each fatality was held during the third quarter regular full council meeting of the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council here on Thursday.
OCD regional director Jose Roberto Nuñez said similar assistance was extended to immediate families of victims from Cebu and Guimaras.
He added that the turnover completed the provision of aid to 26 passengers who died in the sea tragedy.
The assistance for the remaining five fatalities from other regions was processed by their families.
Nuñez sought to finalize the creation of the Visayas Maritime Response Task Force before the year ends. He emphasized that they should not wait for more disasters to happen in the region.
“I came up with this task force to give attention to practices that we need to adopt especially in terms of faster response,” he said.
“It’s all in the book. The problem is with the implementation. So this task force will have an impact on Western Visayas,”he added.
Nuñez, meanwhile, lamented the incident in Boracay Island on Wednesday were seven paddlers of the Boracay Dragon Force Team lost their lives after their boat capsized.(With a report from PNA/PN)
