President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. pledged to replenish the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council’s (NDRRMC) dwindling calamity fund as the country faces mounting costs in disaster response.
During a Palace briefing on Friday, NDRRMC Undersecretary Ariel Nepomuceno reported that the agency’s calamity fund, along with the Quick Response Fund (QRF) of several government agencies, is nearly exhausted.
“Technically, the QRF of agencies is lacking, and our NDRRM fund is also almost depleted,” Nepomuceno said.
Despite the low funds, Nepomuceno assured the public that the Office of the President has committed to provide the necessary funds to sustain disaster response efforts.
“We got the commitment from the President himself to replenish this,” he said.
“Theoretically, we will not run out of funds for our needs because the Office of the President will provide it,” he added.
Currently, the NDRRMC has about P300 million remaining in its calamity fund, which Nepomuceno described as insufficient to meet the country’s average disaster expenses.
“That amount is very lacking since, per calamity, we average between P400 to P500 million,” he explained, noting that certain events, like the recent impact of Typhoon Kristine, required over P500 million in direct government assistance.
