EASTERN VISAYAS DISASTER OFFICERS BACK NDRRMC TRANSFER TO OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

officers of the different disaster units in Eastern Visayas welcomed the plan of President Marcos to place the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) under his office.

Rei Josiah Echano, speaking on behalf of the region’s disaster management officers, said the NDRRMC under the Office of the President could hasten government response during disasters.

“We concur with the decision of the President that his office should be more accountable of the hazard’s impact and its response efforts by placing NDRRMC directly under the Office of the President,” said Echano, the provincial disaster risk reduction management officer of Northern Samar.

“We just look forward that this zeal of the President to take over the responsibility would trickle down to our grassroots disaster response operators in the form of material upliftment of their welfare and benefits,” he added.

The President announced his plan to place the NDRRMC under his office during a visit in Tacloban City on Nov. 9 for the commemoration of the ninth anniversary of Super Typhoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan), which had devastated the city and many areas across the provinces in Leyte, Samar, Panay and Cebu islands.

The NDRRMC is the highest body for the country’s disaster risk reduction and management and was established by virtue of Republic Act No. 10121 in 2010.

The council, currently chaired by Defense Undersecretary Jose Faustino Jr., is composed of various government, nongovernment, civil sector and private sector organizations.

Meanwhile, the provincial, city and municipal disaster risk reduction management officers in Eastern Visayas have submitted a position paper to President Marcos to seek his intervention on matters affecting their employment.

Echano said “90 percent” of the DRMM offices in the region operate as a “one-man team office” with most of them either contractual or job order workers.

He hoped these disaster personnel would be given regular employment status, with corresponding benefits and remunerations in view of the hazards of the profession.

“Our organizations for DRRM workers led by the Office of the Civil Defense in the region justly encourage the national government to take a look at our sad plight and institutionalize interventions so that it becomes the basis of the local governments’ actions for resilience building in their jurisdictions,” the petition read.

“We hope that the President heeds this call given the geomorphology and social vulnerabilities of our people in the region in particular and in the country in general,” it added.