Disaster resilience office, not department, will do – Zubiri

MANILA, Philippines — Senators pressing for the creation of a department of disaster management and resilience are willing to support a bill downgrading it to an agency under the Office of the President as long as it would address the unresponsiveness of the current setup, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said Thursday.

Zubiri noted he is the principal author of the bill seeking to create the Department of Disaster Resilience, which he filed because of his 25 years of experience in the Philippine Red Cross.

“A full-fledged department would have been ideal as there would be accountability and that (disaster) would be its focus because that’s its only job,” the Senate President told “The Chiefs” on Cignal TV’s One News.

But President Marcos’ latest pronouncement that he prefers a “specialist agency” instead of a department can be acceptable to co-proponents of the bill in the Senate, Zubiri said.

Whatever agency that will be created by law, it should strengthen the existing National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), he said.

“I’m all for that. Maybe we can go that way, what’s important is strengthening whatever needs to be strengthened in terms of disaster response,” he said.

The senator agreed to suggestions that the new entity would be patterned after the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency, but should still be headed by a Cabinet-rank official.

Zubiri said the Senate will closely coordinate with Malacañang to make sure whatever it will pass will not be vetoed.

Sen. Imee Marcos, who convinced her younger brother to scale down his preference for a department, recommended an upgrade of the NDRRMC, with enhanced powers under the Office of the President and a more significant budget in her Senate Bill 186, the same bill she filed in 2019 in the 18th Congress.

The senator’s proposal was taken up during Thursday’s public meeting presided over by the Chief Executive with national and local officials in Abra.

“Let’s move forward from chaotic disaster response to year-round resiliency,” she said, adding that the presence of the President, social welfare secretary, Armed Forces, Department of Public Works and Highways and Philippine Institute for Volcanology and Seismology in disaster zones “simply to coordinate adequate assistance and repairs underlines the urgency of empowering the NDRRMC.”

The upgraded agency will exercise command and control over concerned departments, agencies, government-owned and controlled corporations and local government units, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP), to provide immediate response in times of disaster, armed conflict and other man-made hazards.

She noted the delay in mobilizing resources during times of disaster was due to the current practice of having to go through different government agencies, various chains of command in the PNP and branches of the AFP, often even requiring the President to personally mobilize frontline departments.

She cited the evolution of the Department of Budget and Management which started out as a mere office, until it was elevated afterwards to a commission during the term of their father, former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

Only many years later, when its workload necessitated its enlargement and personnel had received extensive training, did it finally become the department it is today.

Yesterday, Office of Civil Defense administrator Ricardo Jalad expressed full support for the creation of the new government agency for disaster preparedness and resiliency.

Proposing another alternative, Jalad said transferring all disaster-related functions to the Department of the Interior and Local Government is also an option that can be considered.

“My position is that I support a National Disaster Resilience Authority (NDRA)-type agency separate from Department of National Defense,” Jalad told The STAR.

“With that, that agency is therefore put directly under the President,” he said, noting that under such, there will still be the NDRRMC chaired by the NDRA head. –  Michael Punongbayan