MANILA, Philippines — The House committees on government reorganization and disaster management on Wednesday approved a bill creating the Department of Disaster Resilience (DDR).
The still-unnumbered bill consolidated at least 30 measures filed in the House creating the department.
In the 17th Congress, the House passed on third and final reading a similar measure in October last year. However, the bill’s counterpart version failed to hurdle the Senate.
READ: House OKs bill creating the Department of Disaster Resilience
Under the new House bill, the DRR will be the primary agency “responsible, accountable, and liable for leading, managing, and organizing national efforts to prevent and reduce disaster risks; prepare for and respond to disasters; and recover, rehabilitate and build forward better after the destruction.”
The department will also be headed by a secretary supported by undersecretaries, assistant secretaries and directors.
Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda, one of the main proponents of the bill, said that the new department would need an initial budget of P10 billion from the national budget.
The new bill also adopted a “joint operational supervision” provision over four agencies vital to DDR —which are Pagasa, Phivolcs, , the Geo-Hazard Assessment and Engineering Geology Section of the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP)— instead of making them attached agencies of the department.
Section 94 of the proposed measure provides that DDR shall exercise joint supervision with the following agencies:
-Department of Science and Technology (DOST) over Pagasa and Phivolcs
– Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), over MGB
-Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) over the BFP
The bill also provides that DDR will still have the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) as its core organization to which the Climate Change Commission Office, the Health Emergency Management Bureau of the Department of Health (DOH), the Disaster Response Assistance and the Disaster Response Management Bureau of the Department of Social Welfare and Development will be integrated.
Salceda said that the new department would have a distinct National Disaster Resilience Fund scheme that allows fund inputs from both national and local government units.
Under the new fund scheme, only 20% of resources can be used for quick response or stand-by fund, while the remaining 80% is for climate change adaptation, disaster risk and vulnerability reduction and mitigation, disaster risk transfer, disaster preparedness, recovery, rehabilitation and anticipatory adaptation.
The DDR will also create a Disaster Resilience Support Fund that will be allocated solely for the use of third to 6th class provinces and towns in planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating their programs, projects, and activities for climate change adaptation, disaster risk prevention and mitigation, disaster risk transfer, and disaster preparedness.
After its approval at the committee level, the bill will be transmitted to the House Committee Rules so that it would be calendared for plenary deliberations.
During President Rodrigo Duterte’s 2019 State of the Nation Address, he called on Congress to fast track the creation of the DDR. #
READ: Duterte: Speed up creation of Department of Disaster Resilience