15,000 riverbank villages monitored

CLARK FREEEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines  – Unusual weather conditions have prompted the Department of the Interior and Local Governments (DILG) to closely monitor 15,000 barangays along 18 major river systems across the country.

At a press conference here yesterday, DILG Undersecretary Austere Panadero said the department is also rushing a complete list of the thousands of families living along these river systems in 500 cities and municipalities.

“The list will be available in two months,” he said after attending a regional forum on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction attended by local government officials from all over Central Luzon.

These families, Panadero said, face risks from flooding during unusually heavy rains, which are being experienced even in areas not previously prone to severe weather conditions.

Panadero said the affected families are on top of some 100,000 residents living along rivers in Metro Manila.

For her part, Sen. Loren Legarda, who chairs the Senate committee on climate change, lamented the government’s failure to access available funding from the United Nations for climate change concerns.

Legarda, in the same press conference, said she would ask President Aquino to designate any financial institution as “national implementing entity” (NIE) to be authorized to seek grants from the Adaptation Fund of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The fund was adopted by the UNFCCC for “concrete (climate change) adaptation projects and programs in developing countries and requires accredited NIEs to negotiate for funds for such countries.”

Legarda said significant amounts could be sourced from the Adaptation Fund for local needs, noting that the Philippines is among the top 10 countries most ravaged by natural disasters.

“We are so slow. It is a pity that in the past years, despite proddings, our government has not availed itself of such funds simply because no NIE has been designated,” she said.