Senator Legarda bats for climate change-responsive nat’l budget

MANILA, Philippines—On the second anniversary of Typhoon Ondoy, which left 80 percent of Metro Manila flooded, a senator on Monday called for a 2012 national budget that would “anticipate” and “withstand” the impacts and economic stress brought about by climate change.

Loren Legarda, chairperson of the Senate committee on climate change, in a privilege speech, said the threat of strong typhoons constantly brings back the fears of another Ondoy or Pepeng, which killed nearly 1,000 people, affected about two million families and left a staggering $4.4-billion damage, or the equivalent of 2.7 percent of the country’s GDP in 2009.

“The Climate Change Act of 2009 and the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 paved the way to climate resilience. And as we seek to enhance the climate law with a complementing policy on climate finance through the People’s Survival Fund bill, I hope that the administration will soon champion successes in the implementation of these measures. Another significant step forward is for the President to assume his role as the chairperson of the Climate Change Commission and convene it immediately for the approval of the National Climate Change Action Plan,” Legarda said.

Legarda said that while the government undertakes projects for improved disaster preparedness, “there is no substitute for national and local government budget that are climate change-adaptive.”