Duterte wants law creating department on disaster response

President Rodrigo Duterte wants Congress to pass a law creating an agency that would focus on disaster response.

“I am calling on both houses of Congress to draft a law establishing a new authority or department that is responsive to the prevailing 21st century conditions,” Duterte said on Monday in his second State of the Nation Address (Sona) before a joint session of Congress at the Batasan Pambansa in Quezon City.

“When nature fights back, it does so with a vengeance,” he added.

The President cited calamities that hit the country, which include the recent 6.5 earthquake that shook Leyte and Typhoon Yolanda that devastated Central Visayas.

“We need to act decisively and fast,” he said. /atm/rga