Poe renews call for separate disaster management agency

MANILA, Philippines -  With earthquakes and strong typhoons hitting the country recently, it’s high time for the country to have a full-time and permanent disaster-resilience and emergency management agency, Sen. Grace Poe said yesterday.

Poe noted that the existing National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) has limitations since it remains an ad hoc council, operating mainly under the structure of its predecessor, the National Disaster Coordinating Council.

As a consequence, Poe said, there are active operations in disaster and post-disaster operations, but are very much lacking in disaster-preparedness.

Poe stressed that disaster-preparedness is just as important as disaster-response because it involves capacity building of personnel and completion of adaptability mechanisms for the next disaster.

As an ad hoc council, the NDRRMC is also hounded by difficulties of getting full-time, professional local and national disaster risk reduction and management personnel with the necessary technical expertise to address pre- and post-disaster needs.

Poe noted that it is imperative for the government to consider new and innovative measures to prevent more damage in the future.

“Climate change is a reality and is upon us. Given the frequency of these extreme weather situations the Philippines has experienced, for us to just sit here and think that this is not going to happen again would be shortsighted,” Poe said.