Senatorial candidate Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez on Tuesday renewed his push for the creation of a separate department that would manage disasters and calamities in the country amid the statement of former US Vice President Al Gore that over 13 million Filipinos may need to be relocated due to fast rising sea levels.
If gets elected to the Senate, Romualdez, a lawyer and president of the Philippine Constitution Association, vowed to file at the upper chamber his House Bill 3486 which seeks to create the Department of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management or DDPEM to be headed by secretary of the Department of National Defense. He said the current National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council is not enough to address the various concerns during calamities.
“The statement of former Vice President Al Gore is another wake-up call for us to further solidify our efforts in fighting the challenges of global warning,” Romualdez, who ran unopposed in the last polls and a former chair of the House committee on ethics and privileges, said.
Romualdez said his proposed separate department would be similar to the Federal Management Agency in the United States.
Romualdez whose key platforms of governance focus on improving jobs, health, education, agriculture and disaster preparedness said the creation of a Fema-like department is one of the lessons he learned from the tragedy brought by Super Typhoon “Yolanda” almost two years ago, with his district in Tacloban City having the most damage to lives and properties.
The House Independent Bloc lauded Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for his efforts to raise awareness about climate change, for visiting Tacloban City and expressing his concern for the plight of Filipinos.
With the increasing number of natural disasters in the country due to climate change, Romualdez, a three-term congressman who is running for the Senate under a platform anchored on compassionate governance, also said politics should be set aside so that authorities can focus on helping calamity victims.
The Leyte opposition leader also said his measure, filed in December 2013 or barely a month after the devastation of Yolanda in the country, aims to drastically reduce, if not totally eliminate, the bureaucratic red tape.
“We need a department that would solely focus on natural and man-made calamities without the ugly red tape that has caused many delays in the delivery of immediate assistance needed by the victims,” Romualdez said even as he vowed to work for the passage of measures that will help victims of calamities.
If passed into law, such proposal would help expedite the delivery of aid and assistance to the victims and implement the rehabilitation and rebuilding immediately, adding the country has been visited by so many destructive disasters in the past years, he said.
Romualdez said a single department tasked to respond on various calamities which are threatening the lives of millions of Filipinos should be given highest priority.
“The current set-up has proven to be inadequate in preparing our country from major calamities which we will have to face on a yearly basis. This new Department will drastically reduce, if not totally eliminate, the bureaucratic red tape which has caused many delays in the delivery of immediate assistance needed by the victims,” Romualdez said.
With its creation, the existing agency such as the NDRRMC, Office of Civil Defense (OCD) and other offices related to are hereby abolished and the powers, functions, all applicable funds and appropriations, records, assets, and properties of the abolished agencies are hereby transferred or absorbed by the department.
The Congressional Oversight Committee will be created to monitor and oversee the implementation of the provisions of this Act, Romualdez stressed.