DEFENSE Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has disclosed a proposal to make the Office of Civil Defense a separate department from the Department of National Defense.
“We would like to elevate the OCD into a department level to give it more muscle to implement our policies to mitigate or help people prepare for disasters caused by calamities para magkaroon sya ng talagang ngipin or teeth to implement yung mga policies natin to mitigate or prepare disasters caused by calamities like earthquake, tidal waves and typhoon, among others,” Lorenzana said.
Lorenzana said this would require amending the Philippine Disaster Risk Management (Republic Act 10121) or the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
NDRRMC is the lead agency of all government agencies in disaster and rehabilitation response.
Lorenzana explained OCD as a department would become more effective in disaster response and in the implementation of rehabilitation programs without having to depend on the decision of the defense secretary.
At present, OCD is led by Defense Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad as administrator. Jalad is also concurrent Executive Director of NDRRMC.
“The problem here is I also have other jobs like managing our operations against the enemies of the state, 24 hours…the reason we sometimes fail to maddress NDRRMC concerns,” Lorenzana explained.