Tingog Party-list Rep. Yedda Marie Romualdez urged fellow lawmakers at the House of Representatives and the Senate to swiftly pass a bill that would create a Department of Disaster Resilience.
“We cannot delay it any further. In the last six months, our country has experienced a series of strong earthquakes in Mindanao, at least two destructive typhoons that hit Bicol and Leyte, and the recent eruption of Taal Volcano displacing thousands of our fellow Filipinos, and destroying their homes and source of livelihood,” she said.
The party-list lawmaker is one of the principal authors of House Bill No. 5989 seeking to create the new department.
During the previous Congress, Romualdez wrote President Rodrigo Duterte asking him to include in his first State of the Nation Address and in his priority legislative agenda the creation of such a department.
“The President did not disappoint this representation. Not only did he mention it in his SONA in 2016, he likewise repeated it in his succeeding SONAs in 2018 and 2019,” she said.
She, however, lamented that “three years have gone by, we have yet to realize the long overdue plea of the President for Congress to pass the measure creating the Department of Disaster Resilience.”
“But the need to guarantee disaster resilience has become even more urgent,” Romualdez said.
Assistant Majority Leader and Quezon City Rep. Precious Hipolito Castelo urged Malacañang to certify as urgent the DDR measure.
She said the country needs a “super body” to solely focus on disaster preparedness, response and rehabilitation.