Mon | 1.25.2021 | 4:00 PM

The PAGCOR-funded multi-purpose evacuation center in Tagudin will soon rise in Barangay Cabulanglangan, a pristine, elevated area in the municipality.

Officials of PAGCOR and Mountain Province LGU lead the groundbreaking ceremony of PAGCOR’s multi-purpose evacuation center in Tadian, Mountain Province on January 22, 2021.

PAGCOR President and COO Alfredo Lim (front, 5th from left) turns over the P50 million mock cheque to Tagudin Mayor Roque Verzosa, Jr. (front, 4th from right) during the groundbreaking ceremony of the PAGCOR-funded multi-purpose evacuation center in the municipality.

Also in photo are (front, from left) PAGCOR Vice President for Corporate Social Responsibility Group Jimmy Bondoc, Chief of Staff Alberto Regino Jr., Assistant Vice President for Community Relations and Services Ramon Stephen Villaflor, Director Reynaldo Concordia, Father Cristeto Cortez, Tagudin Vice Mayor Bernardo Tovera, Jr., Municipal Administrator Atty. Vismarf Lazaga.

Father Cristeto Cortez blesses site where the PAGCOR will build a multi-purpose evacuation center in Barangay Cabulanglangan in Tagudin, Ilocos Sur.

Kayan West Barangay Captain Edward Bangculing (standing) thanks the PAGCOR and the Mountain Province officials for PAGCOR-funded multi-purpose evacuation center that will be constructed in their community. Seated from right are Mountain Province Governor Bonifacio Lacwasan, Jr., Assistant Vice President for Community Relations and Services Ramon Stephen Villaflor, Tadian Mayor Constito Masweng, and Vice Mayor Alfonso Polan.

A priest blesses the site where PAGCOR’s multi-purpose evacuation center in Barangay Kayan West, Tadian, Mountain Province will be built.

After a series of groundbreaking ceremonies in the Southern and Central Luzon for its Multi-purpose Evacuation Center (MPEC) project, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) headed north to fund the construction of evacuation centers in Tagudin, Ilocos Sur and Tadian, Mountain Province.

PAGCOR officially sealed its partnership with the local government units (LGUs) of Tagudin and Tadian by initially turning over P25 million check to each recipient LGU during separate groundbreaking ceremonies on January 22, 2021.

Said amount will kickstart the constuction of the P50 million worth of MPEC in each town. Each MPEC has a provision for kitchen area, storage areas for relief goods, toilet and shower rooms for male and female, lactating rooms for nursing mothers, and a spacious badminton-court type area that may be used for sports events and other purposes such as trainings when it is not being used as an evacuation site.

Expected to be completed within a year, the MPECs in Ilocos Sur and Mountain Province will soon address the lack of appropriate evacuation facilities not only in the recipient towns but also in neighboring communities.

Tagudin Mayor Roque Verzosa, Jr. expressed gratitude to PAGCOR for another significant contribution to their municipality. “In the past, PAGCOR already answered our call for additional classrooms, town transportation service and construction materials for our less fortunate kababayans. Now, PAGCOR granted us this multi-purpose evacuation center which will benefit Tagudinians especially in times of calamities,” he said.

Likewise, Tagudin Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Officer Engineer Michael Padayao explained that the soon-to-rise MPEC in their town will be of great help to locals who need to evacuate to safer places during typhoons. “We have 11 coastal barangays which can be heavily affected during typhoon seasons. With this multi-purpose evacuation center from PAGCOR, affected residents will no longer hesitate to evacuate as they are assured of a comfortable place to stay during times of disasters,” he said.

PAGCOR President and COO Alfredo Lim, who graced the groundbreaking ceremony in Tagudin, underscored the corporation’s commitment to provide much-needed assistance to far-flung communities. “We at PAGCOR strive to bring government services to those who are in dire need, even to remote communities. We hope and pray that these services will alleviate the conditions of our kababayans especially those who have less in life.

Meanwhile, in Tadian, Mountain Province, Governor Bonifacio Lacwasan, Jr. thanked PAGCOR for embarking on another life-changing project. “PAGCOR has benefited our province in so many ways. We became recipient of its school building project, computer and schoolkits donation program,” he shared.

Lacwasan added that the MPEC project in Tadian will benefit not only the town’s residents but also nearby communities.

Dominador Gondran, a councilor in Tadian’s Brgy. Kayan West recalled how the 2009 landslide claimed the lives of more than 30 locals in their barangay. While he is thankful that his family survived the tragic event, Gondran remarked that having a well-constructed evacuation center in their community means a lot to them.

Aside from Ilocos Sur and Mountain Province, PAGCOR has also initially released the first tranche of MPEC funding for Legazpi City and Ligao in Albay; Ocampo, Tigaon, San Jose, and Sagñay in Camarines Sur; San Fernando and  Floridablanca in Pampanga – bringing to 10 the number of LGUs that received grants from the state-run gaming firm.

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