PH has enough funds for disaster response, says Belmonte

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. Inquirer file photo

MANILA, Philippines – The country will have enough funds for next year’s disaster response to meet the challenges brought about by climate change and natural calamities, according to Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

Belmonte said the proposed P1.816 trillion national budget for 2012 that was passed on third and final reading by the House of Representatives last week contained enough provisions for the calamity fund.

Thus, Belmonte said there was no need to increase the calamity fund, sourced from the government’s five percent savings, despite the typhoons and other natural disasters that struck the country this year.

Congress allots P2 billion annually to the national calamity fund, which can only be released upon the recommendation of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

The World Risk Index 2011 report ranked the Philippines as the third “most vulnerable” to disaster risks and natural hazards such as typhoons, earthquakes and tsunami among the 173 countries covered by the  study. The most vulnerable are the South Pacific island states of Vanuatu and Tonga.

According to the Philippine National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council,  an average of 20 typhoons enter the country each year, displacing millions of Filipinos and leaving a trail of death, injury and damage to property running into the billions of pesos.

During the United Nations Human Settlement’s (UN-Habitat) 6th Asian City Journalists Conference in Fukuoka early this month, Prof.  Rajob Shaw of the International Environmental and Disaster Management Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies at the Kyoto University said the Philippine model on disaster response must be replicated in Japan and elsewhere in the world.

Shaw said the Philippines was ahead of Japan and other countries prone to natural disasters in terms of system preparedness, governance and youth participation in mitigating the impact of climate change on people and property.

He specifically cited the availability of the calamity fund in every layer of the government, which he described as a “very important governance structure.”

Nearly half of the calamity fund serves as a quick-response fund of the national government, while the other half is allocated for various projects related to disaster response.  A portion of the fund is also spent on rebuilding infrastructure damaged by storms.

Belmonte said the government could always find ways to channeling more money from other sources to augment the calamity fund.

He said there was also a budget for climate change mitigation.