The House of Representatives’ committee on appropriations has approved the funding provisions for the bill creating the Department of Disaster Resilience.
The committee, chaired by Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles, the panel chairman, said the substitute bill consolidated eight similar bills filed at the Lower House which proposes to establish departments and agencies for disaster management, resilience, preparedness, and rehabilitation.
Among the measures is the House Bill 7968 of Leyte Rep. Yedda Marie Romualdez.
The approval of the funding provisions of the measure came after Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo vowed the immediate passage of the measure and that the Lower House will create a committee that will tackle the disaster preparedness and resiliency of every district in the country.
Chapter XIX of the proposed DDR provides that the amount needed for its initial implementation will be sourced from the current fiscal year’s appropriation of all agencies “absorbed, transferred, and attached to the DDR.”
Eventually, the funding for the department’s maintenance and operations shall be included in the General Appropriations Act, Nograles said.
Under the proposed DDR, the Office of the Civil Defense and Climate Change Commission will be combined as one agency, while offices like the Bureau of Fire Protection and the Health Emergency Management Bureau shall be merged into a new department.
On the other hand, the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration and Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology shall be DDR’s attached agencies.
The funding provision for the measure also provides that the DDR shall manage the use and allocation of the entire National Disaster Resilience Fund, or the calamity fund, and its quick response fund component.