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TaalVolcano eruption

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By CH|N() S. ttYco Pernia added. I being distributed to people in the
The gross regional lomestic variou! evacuation centers while
he ongoing ash eruption product of the agricult{re-driven farmers and fislherfolks have been
of the Taal Volcano will economy of Batangas has been a offered by th,e Department of
adversely affect the area maior contributor to Calabarzon or Agriculture (DA.) of zero and low- .

considered as one of the Region Iv-A's growth. inrcrest emerg€:ncy loans-

top economic contributors to the Among the Philippine regions "Based on our estimates, our
Philippine economy, the Duterte outside of Metro Manila, cala- country loses r -2 percent of our
administradon's chief economist barzon has the highest economic gross domestic lrroduct r GDP) due
said yesterday. contribution to the country's an- to natural disasters, espe(.ially from
Socioeconolnic Planning Sec- nual output at around u percent typhoons every year," Dominguez
retary Ernesto M. Pernia said that in 2018. said. l
preliminary assessinent of eco- Meanwhile, Finance Secretary '(We are lik:wise working on a
nomic impact in terms of gross .' Carlos G. Dominguez III said the natural catastrophe cover for our
value added in the province of government is com.mitted to help strategically important assets like
Batangas alone already amounted areas affected by the Taal volcano schools, roads, and bridges, which
TRTIESTll M. PERNIA
to F7.63 billion- eruption to immediately address would protect against natural
The initial estimate by the Na- the needs of the people and the. cies are already mdnitoring devel- catastrophes such as tsunamis,
tional Economic and Development economy- opments on the ground to properly volcanic eruptions, typhoons,
Authority (NEDA) does not include According to Dominguez, offi- respond to the affected families. earthquakes, and storm surges,"
He added that food packs are
public and private damage cpsts, cials of various government agen- he added-
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