P

resident Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo has promised to complete the disbursal of all compensation payments for Lapindo mud victims in Sidoarjo, East Java, by September as part of a Rp 767 billion (US$54 million) bailout.

Speaking in a forum held on a mud embankment at spot 25 in Porong district, Sidoarjo, on Tuesday, Jokowi told the mud victims to be a little patient while waiting for the disbursal process to be completed.

'€œIt'€™s me who will push for the disbursement. Otherwise, you will come to see me again in Jakarta,'€ Jokowi said in Javanese to some 200 attendees who were mostly Lapindo mud victims and was promptly greeted with laughter.

As of Tuesday, Rp 155 billion had been directly disbursed to the mud victims'€™ bank accounts as compensation. The State Treasury Office had planned to disburse another Rp 164 billion for the same purpose within the next two days.

During the dialogue, Jokowi said that his administration had warned all relevant parties not to delay or hamper the disbursement of the compensation funds.

However, careful and methodical examination of the claims had to be conducted in order to prevent any mistakes from occurring, he said.

Jokowi also called on those who had already received compensation payments to spend the funds wisely. He told them to buy what they needed first and not spend the money on discretionary goods.

Compensation payments have been made in several stages since Aug. 14. To date, compensation had been made in 753 out of a total of 3,324 cases earmarked for compensation according to the audit conducted by the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP).

Ahmad Lubis, one of the mud victims who had yet to receive compensation, expressed hope that the government would remain committed to reexamining files that were inconsistent with the ownership documents.

'€œI had land that had its status lowered to that of an agricultural field with the result that the compensation I received was also smaller,'€ said Lubis who came to the forum from Kediri, East Java, to be able to talk directly with the President although he was not invited to the forum.

Separately, Public Works and Public Housing Minister Basuki Hadimuljono said the government would only take responsibility for paying compensation for assets belonging to individuals.

In the case of assets belonging to companies, he said, settlements would be done '€œbusiness to business'€ as the government would not allocate a bailout for this purpose in the 2016 state budget.

'€œThe reason [why the government did so] is because there are insurance policies and other liabilities. We will be stuck there,'€ Basuki said.

He also told the companies that were victims of the Lapindo mud disaster to have their compensation claims settled in court.

He reiterated that the role of the government in this case was stipulated in the 2013 Constitutional Court'€™s ruling as providing bailout for compensation to individual victims and to facilitate companies for '€œbusiness to business'€ mediation.

Previous chairman of the Association of Lapindo Mud Victim Employers (GPKLL), Ritonga, said that some 25 companies had filed legal claims against PT Lapindo, which was the unit of a holding group belonging to business tycoon and Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie, which was believed to have triggered the disaster while drilling its gas well in the area. The 25 companies have claimed to have suffered Rp 800 billion in losses because of the mudflow.