House panel OKs funding provision for planned disaster resilience agency
Strong winds and rain pound the seawall hours before Typhoon Hagupit passes near the city of Legazpi on December 7, 2014. Typhoon Hagupit tore apart homes and sent waves crashing through coastal communities across the eastern Philippines, creating more misery for millions following a barrage of deadly disasters. AFP PHOTO/TED ALJIBE
The House committee on appropriations approved Wednesday the funding provision of the proposed measure creating the Department of Disaster Resilience (DDR).
Chapter XIX of the still unnumbered consolidated bill states that “the amount needed for the initial implementation of the Act should be taken from the current fiscal year’s appropriation of all agencies herein absorbed, transferred and attached to the Department.”
The House panel approved the funding provision of the bill without amendments.
Meanwhile, the House committees on government reorganization and national defense and security have earlier approved the substitute bill creating the DDR.
Under the bill, the DDR would be the primary agency “responsible for leading, organizing and managing the national effort to reduce disaster risk, prepare for and respond to disasters, recover and rehabilitate, and build forward better after the occurrence of disasters.”
The Secretary of the DDR would also lead the National Disaster Resilience Council, which would consist of secretaries from various key agencies such as the Department of Science and Technology, Department of Health and Department of Environment and National Resources, among others.
Within one year from the approval of the DDR creation, the agency must establish the Climate and Disaster Research, Education and Training Institute, in collaboration with higher educational institutions as well as private and State universities and colleges.
The training institute should serve as a “world-class center of excellence for learning and research in the field of disaster risk and vulnerability reduction and management and climate change adaptation.”
The proposed DDR would also have the power to declare a state of calamity in specific areas.
The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology will become attached agencies of the DDR, once the bill is enacted into law.
On Tuesday, Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced that she would create a new committee in the House of Representatives to tackle disaster preparedness and resiliency in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s call to create a Disaster Management Department. /kga
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