PRRD reiterates plan to turn NDRRMC into ‘regular department’

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the 85th anniversary of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) at The Forum of the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) Grounds in Pasay City on December 6, 2018. RICHARD MADELO/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA — President Rodrigo R. Duterte reiterated his call for the creation of a Department of Disaster Management (DDM) that will focus on minimizing risks in the advent of disasters.

“I have plans of making this department a regular department.

Solely to meet the challenges,” Duterte said during Friday’s situation briefing held in Pili, Camarines Sur, after conducting an aerial inspection in the area that was devastated by Tropical Depression Usman.

Duterte was referring to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), which is headed by Executive Director Ricardo Jalad.

The NDRRMC is in charge of policy-making, coordination, integration, supervision, monitoring and evaluation functions in relation to disaster risk reduction and management.

In his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 23 last year, Duterte appealed to Congress to pass a measure that will allow the creation of an agency that will have more powers than the NDRRMC.

“We, in the Cabinet, have approved for immediate endorsement to Congress the passage of a law creating the ‘Department of Disaster Management,’” Duterte said.

“I fervently appeal to Congress to pass this bill with utmost urgency.

Our people’s safety requirements cannot wait,” he added.

The House of Representatives has already passed a bill on the creation of a disaster department. However, the Senate is still deliberating on its version of the bill.

Citing lack of coordination between national and local government units, Senator Grace Poe, also urged her colleagues in the Senate, to approve the measure that would create a new department in charge of responding to calamities quickly.

She lamented how the Senate has prioritized other bills but only remembers the measure creating a disaster department during disasters.

Last year, Poe filed Senate Bill No. 1735 that seeks the creation of a Department of Disaster Resilience and Emergency Management that will strengthen the country’s disaster risk reduction and management system and institutions, particularly, the NDRRMC.