GMA orders DSWD to
help Bacolod fire victims
PRESIDENT Arroyo ordered the Department of Social Welfare and Development to extend cash and shelter assistance to the victims of a pre-dawn fire in Bacolod City last Nov. 2, Press secretary and deputy presidential spokesman Anthony Golez said yesterday.
"DSWD is extending P10,000 for the families of each dead victim and emergency shelter assistance…the DSWD assistance were through the instructions of President Arroyo," said Golez who flew to Bacolod to personally check on the conditions of the victims.
Golez, a member of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, is running for congressman of Bacolod.
Deputy Presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said the Bacolod City government has likewise extended a P5,000 cash assistance to all the fire victims, aside from the DSWD aid, and the City Disaster Coordinating Council is attending to their other needs. "If ever they need the help of the President or the national government they would course their request through the regional development council…but at the moment, it looks like the city government could handle the situation."
Eighteen people were killed and at least 46 other houses were razed to the ground in the fire that broke out around 1 a.m. at a two-storey boarding house in Bacolod’s Barangay 19. – Jocelyn D. Montemayor