After a series of earthquakes hit Itbayat, Batanes, on Saturday, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said Sunday there was a real need to establish a Department of Disaster Resilience.
He said he had refiled the measure, House Bill 30, that would pave the way for the creation of such department.
“Our first goal is zero casualty in times of disaster. The department would do all things from the person’s heart, the house, then the capacity,” Salceda said referring to the proposed measure.
“Because the government will not be there, those rescuers will not be there when a disaster hits you.”
Former Leyte Rep. Yedda Marie Romualdez, the principal author of the DDR bill, said the department’s creation would effectively reduce the country’s vulnerability to natural hazards and bolster its resilience against the impact of national disasters and climate change.
Congress approved the bill on third and final reading, but the Senate failed to pass it.
Under the bill, the new department would synchronize the different actors, policies and programs involved in disaster preparedness and management.
Under the present setup, the functions for disaster response and resilience are divided among different government agencies.
“One of the things that the DDR would do is risk assessment. The department would already know where the disaster could possibly happen, where it would preposition and where to put up warehouses,” Salceda said.
“It would have its funds for relief [operations] for distribution, and thereby it could establish a working relationship from the local government units.”
A “whole of government” and a “whole of nation” approach was important in dealing with disasters, Salceda.
“There is a need that every day, every minute, we put it in our hearts [the lessons of disaster risk reduction],” Salceda said.
“We just do not rely every quarter on drills, on what we see on television and hear on the radio. It is more important that the ordinary people, the heads of families, they know how to handle the whole ecosystem.”