Rep. Elizaldy Co asserts that the NDRRMC's suggestion is flawed because it does not serve the public interest. As a result, the idea of replacing the NDRRMC with the DDR has been raised.
The suggestion of a yearlong state of calamity as an offshoot of Typhoon Paeng's damage was scoffed at by Elizaldy Co, chair of the House committee on appropriations, who said the idea would not only deplete the calamity funds of LGUs and national disaster response funds, but it does not serve public interest.
Co said Paeng's damage was location specific and nowhere near national in scope.
Elizaldy Co, said that prolonged calamity, particularly of the nationwide and year-long variety, depletes local government calamity funds and national disaster response funds, which does not serve the public interest.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council's (NDRRMC) made the yearlong calamity state suggestion because the vast destruction of the typhoon in 16 out of 17 regions that were at high risk from Paeng. This would allow the government to access additional funds for disaster relief and impose a price freeze on basic commodities.
President Marcos Jr. answered that he will not declare a national state of calamity and instead, directed the government to focus on relief and recovery efforts Paeng-affected areas.
"I don't think it's necessary. I came to that conclusion in consultation with DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) who said it was not extensive, how do we say... damage was highly localized." Marcos said in a press briefing following his inspection of the town of Noveleta in Cavite, one of the provinces that felt the storm’s wrath.
"We're talking about the east coast of Quezon, here in Cavite, and then Maguindanao. So... There's no need for a national calamity,” reports said.
Assistant Secretary Cristina Clasara of the Department of Budget and Management also mentioned that the NDRRMC has sufficient funds for relief efforts.
“This move of the NDRRMC could also be taken as a sign that the NDRRMC and the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) may have outlived their usefulness.” Co added.
With this, Co noted that the NDRRMC needs to be replaced by a Department of Disaster Resilience (DDR) which the House of Representatives has repeatedly approved but has met strong opposition from other quarters.
“Now that the country is on its way out of the pandemic, the budget constraints arguments against creating a new department, the DDR, have weakened and bodes well for the smoother and unhampered sailing of the DDR bill through Congress and onwards to the desk of the President.” Co concluded.
Tags: #NDRRMC, #Flawed, #DDR, #StateOfCalamity