Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has pushed for the creation of a Disaster Management Department in a bid to minimize the country’s vulnerability to natural calamities.
Arroyo endorsed the proposed measure authored by Leyte Rep. Yedda Marie Romualdez which is up for second, and third and final reading approval at the House of Representatives.
Arroyo stressed the need for the government to have a Disaster Management secretary who will focus on risk reduction and management concerns.
“We need to have a permanent and full-time Secretary of Disaster. Who’s the head of the Council? [Defense] Secretary [Delfin] Lorenzana. Well, he is busy fighting insurgency. He is busy fighting terrorism. So how can he be there full-time?” Arroyo said during the distribution of relief goods to some 1,000 families in Marilao, Bulacan who were affected by previous typhoons.
“So now, what happened is since the typhoon is going to hit the North, four secretaries are there. If there was a full-time secretary, then you don’t need four secretaries to be there,” Arroyo added.
She said the creation of a Disaster Management Department will maximize government efforts to respond to natural calamities while at the same time minimize casualties.
“They are doing the best that they can. I am satisfied with what they’re doing within the limitations of a coordinating council, but this really proves we should have a Disaster [Management] Department,” the former president said.
The consolidated DDR bill is currently pending for plenary action.
The House committee on government reorganization chaired by Camiguin Rep. Xavier Jesus Romualdo and the House committee on national defense led by Pangasinan Rep. Amado Espino approved the consolidated DDR bill while the House committee on appropriations chaired by Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles gave the green light for the funding requirement of the measure.
Romualdez’s House Bill No. 7968 was a revised version of her original HB 344 that she earlier filed following President Rodrigo Duterte’s renewed call during his third State of the Nation Address for Congress to expedite the passage of the proposed law.
Romualdez, vice chairperson of the House committee on government enterprises and privatization, said her proposal “aims to drastically reduce, if not totally eliminate, the bureaucratic red tape which has caused many delays in the delivery of immediate assistance needed by the victims.”
To ensure DDR’s unity of command, the Romualdez bill will abolish the Climate Change Commission and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.