BAUTISTA, Pangasinan — The continuous rainfall in the province caused by weather disturbances that intensified the southwest monsoon has incurred PHP25 million losses in the agriculture industry of this town.
In an interview Friday, Bautista Municipal Agriculture Officer Rodrigo Tagulao said the town’s losses on the second wave of flooding and rains this August reached about PHP4 million.
“The flooding in the town last July left us with PHP21 million losses,” he said.
The PHP21 million damages recorded earlier were already reported to the Provincial Agriculture Office, added Tagulao.
A week after the July flooding, the Department of Agriculture (DA), through Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, allocated 617 bags of hybrid and 241 bags of inbred seeds to farmers in Bautista, he said.
“Our farmers, unfortunately, have already planted the seeds given by the DA. The second flooding was really unexpected. That’s why, even the donated seeds were also destroyed,” Tagulao said.
He said they are currently filing reports on the damages of the second calamity, and are determining on how farmers can be aided.
The town of Bautista is one of the 17 towns and cities in the province affected by the overflow of the Agno River caused by torrential rainfall, and the San Roque Dam’s opening of its floodgates. (Ahikam Pasion/PNA)
