Congressman Martin Romualdez of Leyte on Tuesday prodded the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council to conduct a nationwide inventory of structures and stocks of emergency food and medical supplies, with special focus on disaster-prone areas in the Visayas, Bicol and Central Luzon.
“The first quarter of the year isn’t normally typhoon season but that’s not an excuse to be lax. The heavy rains we experienced last December should give us fair warning about how unpredictable the weather has become,” explained the congressman, who is a senatorial candidate.
Romualdez, a UP-trained lawyer, said that the NDRRMC leadership should be more pro-active, stressing that “disaster preparedness is largely a matter of infrastructure readiness.”
He said that when disasters and natural calamities strike, government facilities should be both pre-positioned and multi-use, always ready for relief, medical and evacuation operations.
NDRRMC needs to make public what systems are in place when disasters strike, “because sooner or later, these disasters are sure to happen.”
“The NDRRMC should be active all year-round. During those times it doesn’t manage and coordinate actual disaster relief, it should always engage the public in disaster education, and coordinate with the government and private sectors on disaster readiness,” he said.
Romualdez recalled the painful experience his home province of Leyte suffered in November 2013 during Typhoon “Yolanda,” where an estimated 6,300 died and half a million people were left homeless.
“Food and medicine were inexistent during the most critical first few days after Yolanda struck because these weren’t prepositioned in strategic areas at or near the province,” Romualdez said.
“We need to learn from the painful lessons of Yolanda. We need more structural strengthening of our local schools, gymnasiums and other facilities used as temporary shelters,” the solon noted.
Romualdez, who is running for a Senate seat in the 2016 elections, stressed that ideally, separate and dedicated “multi-use” evacuation centers should be constructed in disaster-prone areas. These facilities could still be utilized and made productive to local communities “outside of typhoon season” and thus not wasteful of government funds.