Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda’s proposed measure that creates an independent national authority to handle and strengthen the country’s disaster risk reduction (DRR) management system has gained wide and popular support among community-based and globally known DRR advocates and practitioners.
Salceda’s measure, House Bill 1648, filed in July, forms the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) that will radicalize the country’s disaster response and management system and make it “the world’s best approach to DRR.”
HB 1648 is titled “An Act Further Strengthening the Philippines Disaster Reduction and Management System by Institutionalizing the Framework and Plan and Establishing the NDRRMA, an independent body under the Office of the President dedicated to pre-disaster risk reduction and post-disaster reconstruction.” It aims to amend RA 10121, the country’s DRR law, and further strengthen calamity response by “institutionalizing the framework and plan, with NDRRMA.”
Salceda said HB 1648 is a “product of comparable international experiences” and is timed with the review of the performance and organizational structure of RA 10121 enacted in 2010.
The NDRRMA, he said, will be equipped with the necessary competency and resources to engage new actors, particularly in the field of risk transfer and insurance, and built with the necessary structure to manage broader governance arrangements and oversee DRRM efforts towards sustainable development goals.
Among those that have vowed to support HB 1648 is the Disaster Risk Reduction Network Philippines (DRRNetPhils), a group of DRR practitioners and advocates who recently met with Salceda on September 7.
In a letter to Salceda prior to their consultation, DRRNetPhils lead convenor Maria Felizar-Cagay, pledged support to the bill and commended the lawmaker for “being a champion and for continuously seeking ways to improve the disaster risk reduction and management system in the country.”
In line with community-based disaster risk reduction and management’s advocacy of building resilient communities, Cagay said they have “undertaken legislative advocacies in both houses of the Philippine Congress” and supported the passage of RA 1012, the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010
Salceda was a former governor of Albay, a province acknowledged internationally for its best practices in achieving zero casualty during disasters. He elected as co-chairman of the United Nations Green Climate Fund Board in Paris, France in 2013, the first Asian and Filipino to lead the fund’s 24-member board.