San Jose del Monte Rep. Florida Robes (FILE PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines — San Jose del Monte City Rep. Florida Robes urged the national government on Wednesday to start addressing the issue of climate change as soon as possible.
“In the aftermath of Super Typhoon Karding, this representation would like to spark an honest dialogue to three inconvenient — yet vital — truths that affect our nation and humanity as a whole…The pressing and urgent need to strengthen our policies on environmental protection and adapting to climate change,” Robes said in a statement.
According to Robes, the Philippines ranked second in the 2018 Climate Risk Index among countries heavily affected by extreme weather events and 11th out of 180 nations in the 2020 Environmental Performance Index (EPI).
This, she said, resulted in economic losses of around $3.5 billion based on World Bank estimates yearly due to natural calamities.
“We can definitely feel the economic devastation of climate change. To illustrate, recently, Karding alone destroyed at least P160 million worth of high-value crops,” Robes said.
She then urged her colleagues to take notice of these warnings and pass legislation to protect the environment from the ravaging effects of climate change, suggesting that first responders and rescuers be given more responsibility.
“Countless storms have passed yet the courage of rescuers of our national and local disaster risk reduction and management councils, and civil society volunteers remain unbreakable and indomitable. Yet, it is unconscionable that our laws are inadequate to protect them,” Robes said
She added that rescuers, “who, our local risk disaster management rely on during disasters, are employed as mere casual employees and underpaid, and receive little protection.”
Robes said she had already filed two measures empowering emergency volunteers — House Bill 5584 or the Emergency Volunteer Protection Act of 2022 and HB 5650 or Magna Carta for Public Disaster Risk and Emergency Responders.