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Putting Senate funds to good use
SENATE President Juan Ponce Enrile yesterday announced that the Senate will forego its annual Christmas party in the wake of recent natural calamities.
Instead, funds for the event will be donated to disaster victims, Enrile said.
"I commend our Senate employees and the Secretary of the Senate herself for being among the first to suggest, even as I was already preparing to announce it, to cancel our scheduled Christmas party and, instead, to just donate the budget for the Christmas celebration to the typhoon and flood victims," Enrile told Senate personnel during a flag ceremony marking the Senate’s 93rd anniversary.
Enrile said earlier that the Senate, with its discretionary funds, donated P500,000 each to ABS-CBN Foundation, Inc., GMA Kapuso Foundation, and the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC) to support relief efforts for the typhoon victims.
At least P120,000 from the chamber’s welfare fund was also donated and divided among the three organizations.
Meanwhile, Sen. Loren Legarda will meet today with United Nations Undersecretary General John Holmes to assess the extent of the typhoon damage in the provinces.
Legarda also scheduled a Senate hearing tomorrow that would focus on the responsibility of Laguna Lake Development Authority, in the massive flooding in several municipalities surrounding the lake.
But even before the hearing, Sen. Francis Escudero said he is poised to file a class action suit against private operators of Luzon dams for failing to adequately warn residents about releasing massive volumes of water, which reportedly killed many.
He said that dam operators can be sued for deaths or injuries caused by their disregard for safety.
"In extreme cases, they can even be criminally liable. Any complainant may also add reckless imprudence to the class action suit," he said.
Escudero pointed out the private operator of San Roque dam was telling the public two days before typhoon Pepeng made landfall, that the dam can absorb all the rains. – JP Lopez
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