MANILA, Philippines ? Tropical Storm ?Ondoy? (international codename: Ketsana) exposed the flaws in the government?s disaster management system and amplified the need for a separate agency with the power and resources to direct disaster response efforts, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr. said Thursday.

In an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Teodoro said the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), which he chairs, had ?no budget for operations.?

?[And] since it is not an operating agency, line government agencies are used to respond to disasters using their own budgets,? he said.

Teodoro also said the disaster caused by Ondoy proved that completely devolving disaster management to local government units, even the affluent ones, could not be part of the solution just yet.

But in the same breath, he said local officials must keep handy leisure craft such as jet skis and airboats other than the rubber boats that were used to rescue tens of thousands of people trapped on their rooftops by rising floodwaters.

The government, particularly the NDCC, has drawn heavy criticism for its slow and inadequate response to the widespread floods that swamped Metro Manila and environs on Sept. 26. The casualty toll climbed by the day, settling on at least 298 people dead.

The NDCC dispatched a dismal total of 49 rubber boats?each with a capacity of less than 20 people at a time?for rescue operations. Teodoro said the figure excluded those sent out by local government units.

At the peak of Ondoy?s onslaught, rescue operations were slowed down in Cainta town in Rizal province and in the cities of Marikina and Pasig because the currents were too strong and the rubber boats were no match for the debris carried by the floodwaters.

?Task-saturated?

If there had been more rubber boats or jet skis and airboats to dispatch and a distinct disaster agency with resources to direct emergency response efforts, the death toll of Ondoy would have been much lower, Teodoro said.

But the NDCC can only do so much with its operating arm, the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), which has a P94.9-million budget, he said.

Of the amount, only P26 million can be spent on maintenance and other operating expenses, of which a large bulk goes to electric bills. The rest is allotted to salaries.

Another problem with the current setup is that operating agencies?particularly the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police?are equally hard up, Teodoro pointed out.

He said much of the police and military?s modest assets had been apportioned to internal security operations in line with the government policy to crush terrorism and the communist insurgency.

?The thing is, we cannot just order the AFP or the police to shift roles. So my suggestion is the creation of a separate agency with the power and resources to direct response efforts,? Teodoro said.

He also said that at this point, the NDCC was ?task-saturated,? monitoring the situation in conflict-areas in Mindanao, the perennial flooding in Cotabato and Compostela Valley, and the restiveness of Mt. Mayon in Albay, among others.

Unusual critical areas

Teodoro recounted that when floodwaters began to rise at an alarming level at around noon on Sept. 26, the Navy dispatched in two to three hours its rescue teams to cities where flooding was a common occurrence, such as Navotas and Caloocan.

He said that by the time the rescuers realized that the situation was critical in areas where they had never mounted operations?such as Cainta, Marikina and Pasig?traffic had snarled, slowing down the transport of rescue boats.

With Metro Manila now vulnerable to flooding at varying intensity, the selection of rescue vehicles and equipment must also include other watercraft appropriate to the respective landscape of a city or town, Teodoro said.

He said rescuers had learned that while a rubber boat could easily navigate the waters of Navotas and Caloocan, it was a different thing in Marikina where the currents were too strong.

Judge on Jet Ski

According to Teodoro, a Jet Ski or an airboat can be the most fitting for rescue operations in strong currents. This was proven by a Quezon City judge, Ralph Lee, who used his jet ski to save stranded residents of a nearby village.

Also, communications equipment that do not depend on external power sources and providers must be put on the priority list, Teodoro said.

He said that when phone lines went down on Sept. 26, the NDCC coordinated with rescuers through radio reporters equipped with handheld radios.

For the detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, the NDCC?s failure to react promptly to the emergency triggered by Ondoy reflected the weaknesses of an ad hoc body.

?This was another time that government failed to work,? Trillanes told the Inquirer in a questionnaire sent to him.

Emergency Management Agency

Seeing what Ondoy had done to nearly half a million people in Metro Manila, including his own family, he said he would push Senate Bill No. 2086, which would establish the ?Emergency Management Agency? or the EMA.

Trillanes? bill appears to be dead in the water in the current 14th Congress because another proposed measure on disaster management, SB 3086 primarily authored by Sen. Richard Gordon, is now on third reading.

SB 3086 aims to strengthen the country?s risk reduction, management and recovery capability by institutionalizing the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management and Recovery Framework.

But Trillanes remains unconvinced of its effectiveness. This is why he intends to refile his bill in the next Congress.

First line of defense

The proposed EMA, a new government office to be placed under the Office of the President, will have its own budget dedicated to disaster mitigation and preparedness as well as a quick-response mechanism.

It will be headed by a director who will do the ?dirty work? of planning disaster contingencies, according to Trillanes.

?All year round, the EMA will focus on its mandated tasks, which are disaster preparedness, disaster response, search and rescue and retrieval, and ultimately, emergency relief and rehabilitation,? he said.

A salient feature of the proposed EMA is to get the people themselves involved by strengthening local community capacities.

The people are the ?first line of defense? when emergencies or disasters strike, Trillanes said, adding that they should be ?convinced? that they, too, must participate in disaster preparedness and response.

Community-based

It will be upon the EMA to develop ?Community-Based Disaster Management? (CBDM), which will include ?activities, projects, and programs to reduce disaster risk, primarily designed by people living in high-risk [areas] based on their needs and capacities and in close coordination with local disaster coordinating councils,? Trillanes said.

He said it would be the EMA?s responsibility to provide even barangays the right equipment for emergencies and even evacuation plans.

Close to home

For Trillanes, one of the junior officers who led the short-lived Oakwood mutiny in July 2003, the devastating floods brought by Ondoy hit close to home.

His wife and two children were trapped with some relatives and neighbors for nearly 24 hours at the second floor of their house at an eastern Metro Manila subdivision.

The entire first floor of the house they have lived in for 20 years was submerged. If the floodwaters had gone any higher, Arlene Trillanes?a former military officer like her husband?would have had to get around 15 people to the roof through a fire exit.

Trillanes said that realistically, the proposed EMA would need a huge budget.

?But we have to provide for that. With what I and my family have experienced, I wouldn?t want to wish it to happen to our countrymen. And that?s basically a primordial concern of every government?to look out for the welfare of every citizen,? he said.

Full-time manager

The director of the proposed EMA will be equivalent to a Cabinet secretary. He will be the on-scene commander in times of emergency, unlike in the present setup at the NDCC, Trillanes said.

He added: ?During ordinary days, the hat of the SND (secretary of national defense) is as a [strategist of] how to neutralize or win the peace as far as national security is concerned.

?Then suddenly, during emergencies, which may or may not come, and you don?t know when it will come, he will wear the hat of the crisis manager?and that is the only time he will focus on what to do.?

Trillanes said the EMA director would be a ?full-time emergency manager,? so that in any kind of emergency or disaster, ?he would know the 1,2,3?s of everything because he is supposed to conduct drills on every emergency such as floods, typhoons, fires, earthquakes, tsunamis, including man-made disasters like the Glorietta blast [in October 2007].?