House solons want each LGU to have an evacuation center

PROTECTION Several residents displaced by the activity of Taal Volcano receive their first dose of the Sinovac vaccine at Plaza Elena evacuation center in Agoncillo, Batangas province, on Monday as the government ensures that evacuees will be protected against COVID-19. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

MANILA, Philippines — Several lawmakers in the House of Representatives are pushing to provied every local government unit (LGU) with an evacuation center.

The House Subcommittee on Disaster Preparedness convened on Wednesday to discuss the consolidation of 26 bills into House Bill 16, otherwise known as “An act establishing evacuation centers in every city and municipality, and appropriating funds therefor.”

The said house bill was introduced by House Speaker Martin Romualdez and Tingog Sinirangan Party-list Representatives Yedda Marie Romualdez and June Acidre.

However, budgetary concerns were immediately raised during the subcommittee’s deliberation on the bill.

Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Bureau of Maintenance Director Melvin Navarro was asked by the representatives how much an evacuation center will cost if every region was allotted P100 million.

“The costing right now, Mister Chairman, is around 36 million per unit of the evacuation center. Actually, because of the changes of the costing, it already reached up to 36 million. So even our initial estimate before that we can construct three units per 100 million is no longer enough,” said Navarro.

On top of budgetary constraints, the design of the evacuation centers was also examined.

“The evacuation center should be hazard-specific,” said Mabee Cahulogan from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, saying that the location of the evacuation centers should also be based on the kind of hazard they will protect people from.

Leyte 4th District Representative Richard Gomez also expressed his concerns about the existing design of evacuation centers, saying that this is inefficient for their cost.

Krista Yu from the National Research Council of the Philippines also pointed out several points of improvement for House Bill 16.

“It’s quite silent on the size and number of evacuation centers,” Yu said, adding that the bill is not clear on which agency will be tasked to maintain the evacuation centers.

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