Wanted: A disaster preparedness plan

Finally after three years in the narco list of President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte, Peter Lim was finally charged for his alleged involvement in illegal drugs. Call him lucky that he did not meet the fate of other prominent drug lords who were killed in various raids by the police. At least Lim can look forward to years of fighting the legal case filed against him. But three years in his fight against illegal drugs, drug lords were recently uncovered smuggling in P6.8 billion in illegal drugs through the Bureau of Customs.

In fairness to the president, he has been vilified by human rights advocates regarding the number of deaths in the war against drugs. Allow me to mention this quote from Fr. Joel Tabora, SJ, which I found in my Facebook page: “If President Rodrigo Roa Duterte does not win the War against Drugs, the problem will grow and persist until no administration can. Then we will be controlled by drugs.” I fully concur with this observation which is why I still support Duterte’s presidency.

The problem we face is that illegal drugs means huge amounts of money for this illicit business. It doesn’t even count the real score of illegal drugs; the disaster to the person taking drugs, and worse, the family gets disturbed. This is why I find it totally absurd to hear that smuggling of illegal drugs was uncovered in the Bureau of Customs and no one seems to be responsible for this. Just imagine when this shabu hits the streets, it gives you an idea that the war against drugs cannot just be won even after President Duterte leaves office. So in the end, despite all efforts that President Duterte exerted in this war against drugs, the Philippines will go the way of Mexico!

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During his last State of the Nation Address, President Duterte proposed to Congress the creation of the Department of Disaster Management (DDM) which would put the present government agencies, notably the Department of Science and Technology, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, and the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration into the DDM. Now whether this is a good idea, let’s find out!

Right now, what I gathered is that top government scientists have expressed opposition to the planned transfer of Phivolcs and PAGASA, both which are attached to the DOST, to the proposed DDM.

Then we have Renato Solidum Jr., DOST undersecretary for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change, who echoed Dela Peña’s position that Phivolcs and PAGASA are focused on research and development and thus should be kept in a science and technology environment. Solidum, head of Phivolcs, also pointed out: “Our activities are all related to S&T... Essentially, the S&T component of our work would be best served or best executed under the S&T agenda, and under a science and technology culture.”

Indeed, both PAGASA and Phivolcs are agencies, which employ a lot of R&D to improve various services such as providing information and warning to affected communities. Indeed, if the proposal of President Duterte is to make the DDM similar to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the US, then let it be so. Mind you, FEMA is attached to the US Department of Homeland Security.

Meanwhile, my proposal for each Congressional District to come up with a disaster preparedness plan has not been given any thought by our members of Congress. This plan is simple; create a huge facility which should be one floor below the surface so it will not be affected by typhoons, the size of an airplane hangar so that you could stuff it with bottled water in huge quantities, food that can be cooked, machine cutters that can cut down trees, and other equipment that we need for disasters.

Each Congressional District has a huge budget and one can easily create this facility in his district. Now when Christmas time comes and no disaster affected a particular district, then the foodstuff can be given to the poor in the district so it can be replenished with new food. So why hasn’t anyone created this program?

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