LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — The provincial government here approved the release of P3.7 million as assistance to the thousands of victims of typhoon “Pepeng” to allow them to recover from their tragic experiences and lost sources of livelihood.

The fund will be used to implement continuous relief assistance to the hundreds of evacuees in Little Kibungan, Puguis here, and Ambassador, Tublay, Benguet.

The provincial disaster coordinating council reported that there were 457 houses totally damaged and 667 houses that were partially damaged in the 13 towns due to the typhoon’s wrath.

Local officials also requested the different banks in the province to grant soft loans with minimum interests and longer repayment period to thousands of vegetable farmers for the purchase of seeds so that they could start planting their chosen crops en route to recovery.

Instead of grants, the officials prefer that banks offer soft loans to farmers so that they will be responsible enough in repaying their loans since people will be spoiled if they continue to receive dole outs from the government.

Due to the meager allocated funds as its counterpart, the province is constantly requesting concerned government and private offices as well as the international community to provide sufficient funding to the multi-billion pesos needed for the rehabilitation of the province alone because of the serious damages it sustained to public infrastructure and private properties.

Thousands of farmers in the vegetable-producing towns are now in need of certified seeds to plant in order to help them recover their losses when their products that were on their vegetative, flowering, and harvestable stages were ravaged by Pepeng’s strong rains and winds.