Speaker Arroyo OKs Department of Disaster Resilience proposal

Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

LEGAZPI CITY—The proposed draft for the creation of the Department of Disaster Resilience (DDR) or House bill 6075 authored by Albay Second District Rep. Joey Salceda has been given the go-signal by House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Salceda announced on Friday that after Arroyo assumed her speakership post, she directed the House committees on Government Reorganization and Defense and Security to convene and unanimously draft the proposal and endorse it to the plenary.

“We responded to it because President Duterte has repeatedly underscored in his Sona [State of the Nation Address] the urgency for the creation of department level disaster management agency, a version of which he had approved in his recent regular cabinet meeting,” he said.

Salceda stressed that “with DDR, it will be accountable and responsible for overseeing, coordinating and implementing comprehensive disaster risk and vulnerability reduction and management programs and redirecting policy drifts among other agencies handling disaster response tasks.”

He said passing the bill would be easier with Arroyo, being the House Speaker, since she is familiar with such legislation, having approved during her presidency Republic Act 101221, the law which sought to “Strengthen the Philippine Disaster Risk Management System.” /jpv