Albay solon asks Senate to act on proposed disaster resilience body

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda (FILE PHOTO)

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate should  start discussing proposals to create a Department of Disaster Resilience (DDR) without waiting for the House version of the bill to be approved, Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda said on Thursday.

Under current legislative rules, the Senate can only start discussing bills on the plenary once it has been approved by the House of Representatives on third and final reading.  However, this does not limit the Senate from discussing sister bills on the committee level.

 “This will be the third time we are trying to get this done. It was transmitted under Speaker PGMA – with more than a year for the Senate to consider. The House again approved DDR under Speaker Cayetano, with more than 2 years for Senate consideration. Still no Senate action,” Salceda said.

Salceda, however, said he is more optimistic now about the proposal’s fate with Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri at the helm.

“I am more optimistic now that Senate President Zubiri leads that chamber. Albay and Bukidnon, his ancestral homelands, are both disaster-prone. Senator Imee Marcos wants to sponsor the disaster agency. So, I think there’s a stronger chance we will get the agency done this time around,” Salceda said.

 “It does not have to be a Department as the House wants. It can be something closer to the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA, as Senator Imee recently pointed out. But we just hope the Senate will send us something so that we can hammer out a bicameral version,” he added.

Earlier, during a situation briefing presided over by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at Bangued, Abra after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck the province, Senator Marcos suggested that the government already come up with a new authority or office that would empower the existing National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC).

Senator Marcos explained that the President and other national government officials being needed at ground zero actually highlights the need for a government office that would address these concerns.

She said that the new office can be modeled after the United States’ Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) — which is not a new and costlier department.  President Marcos agreed, noting that while he supports the creation of a new office, they should not push for a new department totally.

 Salceda said he hopes the issue can be addressed soon, despite it being early into President Marcos’ term — because over 7,000 deaths may happen in the next six years due to preventable accidents stemming from disasters.

 “It’s still early in the President’s term. We have time. But we should not treat this time as an excuse for complacency. If trends continue, we already know that at least 7,200 people will die of preventable disaster-related causes during PBBM’s term of office, if we keep doing what we have kept doing. Knowing that, delaying what we know to be necessary is unconscionable,” the lawmaker said.

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