Marcos Jr. says NDRRMC to be under Office of the President in ‘near future’

Screengrab from Marcos FB live

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Tuesday bared plans to place the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) under the supervision of the Office of the President (OP).

Marcos made the announcement during a media interview on the sidelines of the 9th year commemoration of Super Typhoon Yolanda held in Tacloban City, Leyte, saying that while the country’s disaster response “has been a good one,” it can be made “even more streamlined.”

He said the suggestion of placing the NDRRMC — or a national disaster response team — under the OP “has been going around for many years.”

“I think that we are headed in that direction because of the weather that we are suffering now from the effects of climate change,” Marcos said.

“So we are continuing to refine the procedures, to refine the processes, the organization, so that we will do even better than we have so far,” he added.

The President said the NDRRMC may be a “more robust system” if put under his office.

“There’s the NDRRMC and they are the ones who are tasked to do this. But I think it would be equally, if not a more robust system if we put it under the Office of the President,” he said.

“So that’s what we are planning to do in the near future,” Marcos added.

Super Typhoon Yolanda, which is the deadliest typhoon to have hit the country, battered parts of the Philippines on Nov. 8, 2013, claiming over 6,000 lives, injuring more than 30,000 people, and affecting more than 3 million families.

After the Yolanda commemoration ceremony, Marcos then led the distribution of aid to residents of Palo, Leyte.

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