Opening of a Pagcor-funded facility in Cagayan

Three municipalities in Cagayan Province have become the latest beneficiaries of the Philippine Entertainment and Games Corporation’s Multipurpose Evacuation Center (MPEC) project. (Pagcor) after the state gaming agency opened newly built facilities on March 10 and 11.

Pagcor-funded multi-purpose facilities such as basketball courts, worth 12.7 million pesos each, have been officially opened in the cities of Amulung, Solana and Peñablanca, Pagcor said in a statement.

In the municipality of Solana, an evacuation facility built in flood-prone Barangay-Malalam-Malakabibi was already used as a temporary shelter in October 2022 after the gates of the Magat Dam were opened to release water following an attack by Tropical Storm Paeng (international name Nalgae).

Municipality of Solana

According to Solana Municipality Mayor Jennalyn P. Karag, although the Pagcor-funded evacuation facility has been partially completed, it has already provided a safe haven for 80 low-lying families in their city.

The statement quoted Karag as saying in Tagalog that when TS Paeng, the water level at Magat Dam rose.

There were isolated barangays in our city, such as Dasun, Bauan, and Malalam-Malacabibi. She added that even when this evacuation point was just under construction, he had already helped.

In the city of Peñablanca, a Pagcor evacuation center has been built in a remote Minanga barangay that is almost two hours from the city center and has no access to telecommunications. The community’s mountainous location and partly unpaved roads make it difficult for local governments to provide quick relief to local residents when they are hit by natural disasters.

Peñablanca, Amulung

The statement quoted Peñablanca Mayor M. Taginod as saying that with the completion of the Pagcor-funded evacuation center in sprawling Barangay Minang, local residents, including indigenous peoples living at the foot of the Sierra Madre, would be provided with a safe haven and also a place where local governments can load essential goods and other essential government services during natural disasters.

Meanwhile, Amulung Municipality Mayor Elpidio R. Rendon also expressed gratitude to Pagcor for providing a safe haven for vulnerable people to evacuate during natural disasters.

“In Amulung, we have identified typhoons, landslides, drought and floods as the main hazards. The flood alone affected 17 of the 47 barangays. This situation is pushing us to increase the adaptive capacity of our flood-prone communities. This evacuation center will be of great help to vulnerable members of our community such as the elderly, children and pregnant women, especially during natural disasters,” Rendon said in a statement.

Beneficiaries

The statement quoted Ramon Steven R. Villaflor, PAGCOR Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility, who attended the opening of evacuation points in Cagayan, as saying that instead of building a two-story building, the state-owned gaming company provided funding for four mixed-use facilities such as basketball courts in cities, most vulnerable to floods.

In addition to Amulung, Solana and Peñablanca, the city of Iguig also received an evacuation facility such as a basketball court. The final verification of the Iguiga project has already been carried out.

Meanwhile, in addition to Cagayan Province, Pagcor also recently opened two-story multi-purpose evacuation centers worth 50 million pesos each in the cities of Floridablanca and Kandaba in Pampanga. More than 200,000 residents of these municipalities will benefit from modern and spacious buildings.

To date, a total of 24 MPECs have been fully built and opened across the country, while 53 are still under construction.

Image credits: Philippine Entertainment and Games Corporation.