LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines?The proposed reconstruction commission, a so-called "bypass route" that will quicken fund sourcing and hasten the country's coping mechanism against the effects of calamities, has been signed into an executive order by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, said Joey Salceda, economic adviser to Ms. Arroyo and current Albay Governor, on Tuesday.

Salceda proposed the creation of a special commission for Philippine reconstruction after Tropical Storm "Ondoy" and Typhoon "Pepeng" ravaged the central part of the country and the northern Luzon areas barely two weeks ago.

"Given the impact of the global crisis on our fiscal capacity versus the magnitude of calamity impact, the Philippines should seek fresh aid amounting to $1 billion to fund reconstruction," he said.

The special public-private reconstruction commission composed of representatives from the government, church, big business and civil society should be constituted by the government to spearhead the effort, he added.

Salceda explained that the special commission will operate like the original Coordinating Council for the Philippine Assistance Plan headed by businessman Roberto Villanueva of Atlantic Gulf Philippines

Inc.

The CCPAP has since evolved into the Coordinating Council for Private Sector Participation which operates the BOT Center under DTI.

The Office of Civil Defense and the National Economic and Development Authority will form the secretariat, whose key task is to raise funds especially grants, prioritize programs and oversee implementation, is spelled out in the proposal.

Its members shall be appointed by the President but it will be headed by a dominant business leader with Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral and Cardinal Rosales as co-chairpersons and the secretaries of departments and heads of business groups and nongovernment organization as members.

The OCD and NEDA will form the secretariat and will also serve as a clearing house for international assistance implemented by the donors themselves using the cluster approach.

Breakdown of the P46 billion is as follows: relocation, P20 billion; infrastructure rehabilitation, P21 billion; and livelihood and agriculture, P5 billion.

The P46 billion will be allocated for typhoon victims, broken down as follows: P27 billion for Ondoy; P12 billion for Pepeng; and P7 billion for Typhoon "Frank" which hit Romblon and Visayan provinces in June 2008.

Ondoy's impact was on infrastructure while "Pepeng" devastated swaths of agricultural land.

Both calamities, however, surfaced a policy need for relocation for the affected population. In the case of Pepeng, it is the need to relocate those vulnerable to landslides while in Ondoy's case, there is the need to resettle informal settlers living beside riverbanks and lakeshores at risk to flooding.

The Reconstruction Commission should request the United Nations and the World Bank to coordinate an international pledging session either in Spain or Japan possibly in November.

Salceda said government is duty-bound to rebuild lives when big help is needed beyond the exigency of disaster response that usually comes in the form of two alternatives in the form of raising taxes and slashing other priorities.

The last two (taxes and slash) are "neither feasible nor desirable since they just shift pesos from the left to the right hand," he added.

He explained that what is needed are new external resources.

In its 5 a.m. update on Tuesday, the National Disaster Coordinating Council reported a P7.17-billion damage due to Pepeng.

This was broken down into: P1.14B-infrastructure; P6.02B-agriculture; and P.003 billion in private property.

It also said that Ondoy resulted to P3.68 billion damage to infrastructure and P6.76B to agriculture.