Disaster Resilience department pushed

A lawmaker- economist on Wednesday pushed for the passage of a pending bill that seeks to create the Department of Disaster Resilience (DRR) that will manage a broad climate-disaster program of governance as the country confronts more and more calamities at greater frequency and magnitude.

City, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, who authored the principal DRR measure (House Bill 6075), said the new department will be “tasked to carry out a continuous, consistent and fortified calamity defense program and ensure the country’s sustainable development and inclusive growth.”

“Now more than ever, we feel the need to create a super government agency, seeing the devastations around us every time disasters strike,” the congressman added.

Salceda explained that to face the onslaught of disasters, the country needs “strategic and systematic approaches to disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response,” as well as “effective programs on rehabilitation and recovery” handled by an agency with its own mandate.

With an initial budget of P10 billion, the DRR will be accountable and responsible for oversee- ing, coordinating and implementing a comprehensive disaster risk and vulnerability reduction and management programs and redirecting policy drifts among other agencies handling such tasks.

Salceda’s proposed DDR aims to take in at least four government entities critical to an effective disaster planning and operation -- the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical Astronomical Services Administration and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology under the Department of Science and Technology; the Geoscience Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources; an, the Bureau of Fire Protection under the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

He said the idea is akin to the US Department of Homeland Security that has under its operational control major federal agencies to effectively confront security issues and threats in many areas.

Salceda said House Bill 6075 is a result of “action research, sharing of experiences and dynamic discussions among various stakeholders from national and local government agencies, organizations and communities and is a product of comparable international experiences.”