00:00 President Bongbong Marcos personally met and asked for help
00:05 to the most affected by the El Niño in Occidental Mindoro.
00:09 Aside from his commitment to the growing agricultural field,
00:12 the President also pointed out the problem in Corrientes, Ruong.
00:16 And Ivan Mayrina was also there.
00:18 This is the new look of calamity that is affecting many provinces in the country now.
00:26 Not floods and earthquakes, but scattered lands.
00:30 That is the problem now in Occidental Mindoro,
00:32 which is one month below the state of calamity.
00:35 The El Niño in Central Barangay San Jose Occidental Mindoro
00:39 was visited by President Bongbong Marcos.
00:42 But it is only a small part of it,
00:44 which is already reaching 10,000 hectares of land.
00:47 According to the government of the province,
00:49 the land in agriculture is already reaching 900 million pesos,
00:53 which is already a priority for many of the people living there.
00:57 Occidental Mindoro is one of the top producers of onions and rice,
01:02 resulting to the damage of almost 300 million pesos in onions alone.
01:07 For rice, the damage due to drought is estimated to more than 5%.
01:14 We are an agricultural province.
01:17 If we are going to grow rice, our economy will be rice.
01:22 The President has also brought help,
01:24 including various government agencies,
01:26 cash assistance from DSWD, Dolyat, and TESDA.
01:30 The Department of Agriculture also brought pumps and machines for irrigation and tractors.
01:35 There are also boats for fishermen and freezers for the cattle that they catch.
01:40 As of now, they have already raised more than a million pesos in the amount of funds
01:43 they have allocated for the response to the effects of the El Niño.
01:46 We need to conduct further assessment of the situation
01:49 because we are still at the height of the El Niño.
01:52 We're hoping that by mid to end of May, it will rain.
01:57 We are now crafting a rehabilitation and recovery plan
02:00 to be financed under the Quick Response Fund.
02:03 Aside from the heavy El Niño,
02:05 the high price of rice is also what more Occidental Mindoro residents are waiting for.
02:09 The rice is now selling for more than 20 pesos per kilowatt hour,
02:13 twice the price of almost 11 pesos per kilowatt hour in Meralco.
02:16 The President's solution is quick.
02:18 Solar energy.
02:20 The Department of Agriculture is also planning to start using solar energy
02:23 for cold storage facilities and irrigation in the province next year.
02:27 But the President also agreed to connect Mindoro Province to the grid.
02:31 The long-term solution is the submarine cable
02:34 so that it can be connected to the grid.
02:37 Because that's the problem here, it's not yet connected to the grid.
02:41 So we're already putting submarine cable here specifically for Mindoro
02:47 so that other places that have excess capacity,
02:54 that are not being used,
02:56 we can transfer them to the places where they are needed.
03:01 From San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, for GMA Integrated News,
03:05 Ivan Mayrina, for Tutok, 24 hours.
03:09 (Music)
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