A House of Representatives committee on Tuesday approved a bill seeking the creation of a government agency solely tasked to handle the country’s natural disaster preparation and response, a proposal seen bolstering the country’s disaster resilience efforts.
Approved by the House government reorganization and disaster resilience committees, the unnumbered substitute bill seeks the establishment of the Department of Disaster Resilience, which would spearhead the state’s disaster response efforts.
“The department shall be the primary government agency responsible for leading, organizing, and managing the national effort to reduce disaster risk, prepare for and respond to disasters, recover and rehabilitate, and build forward better after the occurrence of disasters,” a part of the unnumbered substitute bill obtained by BusinessWorld stated.
A version of the bill was approved by the House in the 18th Congress, but its counterpart measure did not hurdle the Senate as several lawmakers questioned its practicality and the funding required to set up another department.
The country’s emergency preparedness and response programs are under the helm of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, which is led by the Defense department with secretaries of other agencies serving as its vice-chairpersons. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio