House leaders back disaster resilience department

MANILA, Philippines — More lawmakers are pushing for the creation of a Department of Disaster Resilience (DDR) to handle the government’s response during calamities.

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda and Leyte Rep. Lucy Torres-Gomez both said the recent eruption of Taal Volcano showed the need to immediately establish the office.

Salceda, chairman of the House ways and means committee, said the proposed measure would enable the national government to better address calamities in the future. As one of its main proponents, he believed the effects of the latest calamity could have been mitigated or even avoided if the measure was passed earlier on.

“It could have been better (if there’s DDR already). As you can see now, affected communities are evacuating but don’t really know where they should go,” he said. “Let’s pass the DDR and put Phivolcs (Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology) and the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) under the DDR.”

Gomez, for her part, said the DDR would address fragmentation in government’s response, citing the lack of evacuation capacity and the low quality of temporary accommodations.

“We have to recognize that our current system carries with it structural silos that create natural limitations to the disaster risk reduction, response, relief, recovery and rehabilitation processes,” she said in a privilege speech earlier this week. 

“Our status quo is functionally fragmented, with various functions under the theme of disaster resilience housed under different departments. On top of this, the overall responsibility and management for disaster resilience does not fall under one single Cabinet secretary,” she pointed out.

As chair of the committee on disaster management, Gomez explained that the DDR will converge with the Climate Change Commission and will have joint supervision over key units such as the PAGASA and Phivolcs of the Department of Science and Technology, Geo-Hazard Assessment and Engineering Geology Section of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Health Emergency Management Bureau of the health department and the interior’s Bureau of Fire Protection.

“These integrations will hopefully be the preliminary phase to a holistic approach to one of the biggest threats to our safety and to our country’s economic growth. With the DDR, we would be able to establish frameworks for disaster relief, response, recovery and rehabilitation. This means we don’t have to reinvent the wheel all over again each time there is a disaster,” she added.   

The proposed DDR will integrate the Climate Change Commission, National Disaster Risk Reduction, People’s Survival Fund, Yolanda Recovery and Rehabilitation Efforts, and Office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery under the DDR.      

The House plenary tackled the measure during its session in Batangas City last month, but failed to pass it on second reading.