PRRD okays EO to formalize Cabinet secretaries as CORDS

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signs the Executive Order which prohibits illegal contractualization while delivering his speech during the 116th Labor Day Celebration at the IEC Convention Center in Cebu City on May 1, 2018. RICHARD MADELO/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte has approved an executive order (EO) formalizing the designation of Cabinet secretaries as Cabinet Officers for Regional Development and Security (CORDS), Malacañang said on Tuesday.

“National Security Adviser Hermogenes C.

Esperon Jr. requested that the designation of the Cabinet Officers for Regional Development and Security be formalized through an executive order,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement.

Panelo said Esperon made the request to the President during Monday (June 10) night’s Cabinet meeting in Malacañang.

Under the CORDS initiative, Cabinet members may be assigned to discharge their functions, duties and responsibilities to a particular region in addition to his or her regular duties.

Panelo said the CORDS initiative spreads Cabinet officials nationwide and designates them per region “to help ending regional and local communists.”

Moreover, he said the CORDS will also be able to help in delivering basic services and livelihood to different regions.

CORDS will also ensure the “speedy, efficient and orderly resolution of problems in government operations in his/her assigned region.”

Department of Resiliency

Also during the Cabinet meeting, two Cabinet secretaries recommended to push for the passage of the creation of the Department of Resiliency in the 18th Congress.

He said Cabinet Cluster on Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation and Disaster Risk Reduction Chairperson and Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu and National Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana made this recommendation, emphasizing the need to have an “earthquake resilient archipelago.”

“They recommended that the Office of the President, through the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office, push for the passage of the creation of the Department of Resiliency,” Panelo said.

Cimatu and Lorenzana also recommended decongestion of Metro Manila by reducing its population density and incentivizing the economic activities outside of the region.

They also wanted to require all agencies to submit their public service continuity plans should “The Big One” take place.