President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and now-Speaker Gloria Arroyo sit beside each other in this photo taken on May 1, 2018. PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / RICHARD MADELO
House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is set to create a new committee in the House of Representatives to tackle disaster preparedness and resiliency in every district in the country.
In a statement Tuesday, Arroyo said this was in line with President Rodrigo Duterte’s call to create a Disaster Management Department.
During his third State of the Nation Address last July 23, Duterte urged Congress to pass a bill creating a Department of Disaster Management to “bolster our resilience to the impact of natural disasters and climate change.”
READ: Duterte urges Congress: Pass bill creating disaster management department
On Monday, Arroyo led a meeting with the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) to discuss assessments on the districts hit by recent typhoons.
LOOK: Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo meets officials of National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) here at the House of Reps. pic.twitter.com/W9MhPXuzsC
— Path Roxas (@PathRoxasINQ) July 30, 2018
“In as much as the President is prioritizing the disaster management bill and usually there is a mirror committee in the House for all the departments being created, I have asked my colleagues in the majority, including these two ladies if they would agree to organizing a new committee for disaster management,” she said.
She also said she would constitute the lawmakers present at the meeting as members of the new panel on disaster management, referring to Reps. Geraldine Roman (1st District, Bataan), Jose Enrique Garcia III (2nd District, Bataan), Cheryl Deloso-Montalla (2nd District, Zambales), Leopoldo Bataoil (2nd District, Pangasinan), Estrellita Suansing (1st District Nueva Ecija), and Jose Antonio Sy-Alvarado (1st District, Bulacan).
Also present during the meeting were officials of the Departments of Social Welfare and Development, Public Works and Highways and Health, the National Housing Authority, National Food Authority and the Office of Civil Defense.
The House committees on government reorganization and national defense and security have already jointly approved the substitute bill creating the Department of Disaster Resilience (DDR). /cbb