Screengrab from Marcos FB live
Following destructive typhoons and earthquakes that struck the country this year, President Marcos on Tuesday said he wanted the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) to be put directly under his office to streamline and strengthen the government’s disaster response efforts.
Speaking to reporters during his visit to Tacloban City to commemorate the 9th anniversary of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan), one of the most devastating typhoons to hit the country which left more than 7,000 dead and missing, Mr. Marcos said the “good” disaster response by the government could still be improved.
READ: Marcos Jr. says NDRRMC to be under Office of the President in ‘near future’
He said there has been a suggestion “for many years now” that the national disaster “response team” be put under the Office of the President.
“I think that overall, we can say that the response to the disasters—the disaster response has been a good one. However, I believe that there are ways when we can even make it more streamlined,” he added.
He said the government was headed toward streamlining because the country was suffering from weather affected by climate change.
Currently under DND
The NDRRMC, created under Republic Act No. 10121, is currently under the Department of National Defense (DND) and is chaired by the defense secretary.
Among its vice chairpersons are the secretaries of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Science and Technology, and National Economic and Development Authority.
The administration is continuing to refine the processes for a better government response to disasters and the President said “this can be done.”
The NDRRMC is currently the lead agency tasked with mustering and coordinating the various government offices responding to a disaster.
“But I think it would be equally, if not a more robust system, if we put it under the Office of the President,” Mr. Marcos said.
He did not say how he would handle the agency that would be added to his job as president and as secretary of agriculture.
In July this year, he agreed to the creation of the Department of Disaster Resilience following the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that shook Abra and other parts of northern Luzon, but he later withdrew his support for the proposed measure.
‘Yolanda’ casualties
In the interview with reporters in Tacloban City, Mr. Marcos also expressed doubt that only 6,000 individuals died during the onslaught of Yolanda, which struck the country on Nov. 8, 2013, as the world’s strongest typhoon to hit land with sustained winds of 315 kilometers per hour.
“I have questioned it from day one. They said 6,000 plus? It’s not 6,000 plus,” he said, but quickly added that it was “too late” to determine the actual number of casualties.
In his speech at the Holy Cross Memorial Garden in Tacloban, the President said he was commemorating “those uncounted dead that up to now we do not know how many that number is.”
“We must come to these commemorations so that we will remember those who we were told not to remember,” he said. (See related story in Regions, Page A9.)
He said there were “still thousands out there” whose remains have not been found.
Keep memory alive
“And for those thousands, those countless thousands, we come here, we commemorate. Because if we no longer commemorate, their memory dies. And it is only up to us to keep that memory alive,” he said.
He said the annual commemoration was a reminder of the strength and courage of Filipinos.
“To remind ourselves that Filipinos are brave, that Filipinos are kind, and that Filipinos will conquer all, especially if it is for their community, for their families, and for the land that they love,” he said.
According to the NDRRMC’s April 17, 2014, report on Yolanda, the supertyphoon left 6,300 dead, mostly by drowning, and 1,061 others missing.
Most of the casualties were from Leyte, the home province of the President’s mother, former first lady Imelda Marcos.
At least 16 million people in 44 provinces were affected as Yolanda barreled through the Visayas, forcing about 5.13 million people to evacuate. The damage it left amounted to around P89.6 billion.