The number of families affected by the 7.4 magnitude quake and its 6.9 magnitude doublet in the Davao region has gone up to 201,163 or 934,219 individuals, the Office of Civil Defense reported.
Among the badly-hit provinces, Davao Oriental, whose town of Manay was the epicenter of the offshore quakes, posted the highest number of 167,493 affected families or 786,349 individuals; followed by Davao de Oro with 32,604 families or 143,890 individuals; and Davao del Norte, 1,060 families or 3,980 individuals.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development reported having distributed some P63.24 million worth of family food packs, non-food items, and ready-to-eat food to affected families in the region, P46.14 million of these in Davao Oriental.
The twin quakes that were felt in most parts of Mindanao and the Visayas had totally damaged 1,075 houses in the region and partially damaged 13,615 others, sending 673 families or 2,199 persons to the evacuation sites.
OCD said a total of 28 towns and 376 barangays were affected in the region.
The Department of Education (DepEd) also reported 918 classrooms totally damaged by the quakes, 198 wash facilities, 1,036 IT equipment, among others, affecting 114,820 learners.
During President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s visit on Monday, Education Secretary Sonny Angara said bigger and sturdier classrooms would be built to replace the ones totally damaged by the quakes.
This developed as the Social Security System (SSS) in Mindanao announced that SSS had activated its calamity loans to members living in calamity areas declared by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) and their provincial and municipal counterparts.
Mona Lorraine Tombo, the regional communications officer of SSS Mindanao South Division, said that all towns and cities of Davao Oriental have been among those declared as calamity areas along with all cities and towns of Cebu province, 117 cities and towns of Ilocos Norte, Cagayan, Oriental Mindoro, Romblon, Masbate, Aklan, and Maguindanao del Sur.
She said that in the past year, SSS released P10 billion to 560,000 members from the facility.
Based on the revised guidelines, SSS has reduced the interest rate of the program from 10 percent to seven percent per year for members with a clean record, or those with no past dues or delinquency, and those who had not availed of the SSS penalty condonation program. Processing of the loan application will be seven working days after the application, Tombo saidMembers can also renew their loan after six months, and they can process their application in seven days./coa