Local government Units (LGUs) are now authorized by law to conduct preemptive evacuations and other disaster risk-reduction initiatives in the event of forecasted calamities.
Camarines Sur Rep. Migz Villafuerte on Friday said President Marcos recently signed Republic Act 12287, or the Declaration of State of Imminent Disaster Act, enabling the government to declare a “State of Imminent Disaster” before an expected calamity strikes.
The new law, Villafuerte said, enables the national government and concerned LGUs to carry out preparatory and emergency measures in advance to protect communities and their residents from expected calamities like typhoons, floods, storm surges, droughts, and heat waves.
Migz Villafuerte, a former governor, along with then-congressman and now Camarines Sur Gov. Luis Raymund Villafuerte, were among the authors of the House version of RA 12287 in the recently adjourned 19th Congress.
Signed on September 12, RA 12287 empowers the President to declare, through an executive order (EO), a “State of Imminent Disaster” over a cluster of regions, provinces, municipalities, cities, and barangays, based on the recommendation by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).
“Granting the national government and LGUs the authority to plan and act ahead of forecasted disasters to save more lives and mitigate the adverse effects of these upcoming calamities is of great urgency, given that the Philippines has been the most disaster-prone country in the world for two decades now,” Migz Villafuerte said.
He noted that the Philippines has a risk score of 46.56 in the World Risk Index this year, unchanged from 2024 and still ahead of 192 other nations, released by Germany’s Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft and Ruhr University Bochum.
