Duterte hopes NPA won’t stop relief efforts

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte is hopeful that the New People’s Army (NPA) will not obstruct the government’s relief operations in areas devastated by Typhoon Odette so that assistance can immediately reach the affected communities.

“I hope that the NPAs will not really tinker with the government’s response,” Duterte said in Filipino and English in his pre-recorded public address last Monday night.

“Because in Sipalay (Negros Occidental), when we passed by Kabankalan … something is happening in Kabankalan, that’s what I heard… My worry now is whether the food, help have arrived,” he added.

The Chief Executive had earlier tapped the military and the police to handle the distribution of financial and other forms of assistance to typhoon victims.

“So, in my experience, in times of crisis and in times of emergency, you have to call in the military and the police. And if it is ungovernable already, then it’s for them to restore order,” he said.

Meanwhile, Duterte on Monday urged the next administration and Congress to amend a law that hinders the immediate declaration of a state of calamity to ease the misery of the people.

He blamed a law that hindered him from immediately declaring a state of calamity in areas devastated by Odette, one of the world’s strongest storms this year.

A law covering the Chief Executive’s power to declare a state of calamity is based on the assessment and evaluation by disaster agencies on the ground, according to the President.

“And that is really so many provisions in the law that would hinder the government to just act immediately because I said there has to be … before the declaration, there has to be an evaluation and the assessment of damage,” he said.

“That law should be changed. And it behooves upon this Congress, if they want to, or the next president, may I advise, try to repeal the law so that the government – there is already the warning – will no longer need the assessment,” he added.

Duterte signed Proclamation No. 1267 on Dec. 21, placing MIMAROPA (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan), Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Northern Mindanao and Caraga under a state of calamity.

Odette made landfall in Siargao Island, Surigao del Norte; Cagdianao, Dinagat Islands; Liloan, Southern Leyte; Padre Burgos, Southern Leyte; President Carlos P. Garcia, Bohol; and Bien Unido, Bohol on Dec. 16.