President Duterte called for the creation of a Department of Disaster Management (DDM) in his State of the Nation Address on July 23. Less than three weeks later, Metro Manila experienced widespread flooding. Is Mother Nature trying to tell us something?
The President said: “I am calling [on] both houses of Congress to expeditiously craft a law establishing a new authority or department that is responsive to the prevailing 21st-century conditions and empowered to best deliver [an] enhanced disaster resiliency and quick disaster response.”
That idea seems straightforward. The country faces a variety of natural disasters every year that require close coordination between the national and local governments, a variety of different responses based on particular needs, and a comprehensive and holistic planning approach. Preparations and plans must be made for what should be accomplished before, during and after a major event like what the Supertyphoon Yolanda experience taught us.
While the details are still being discussed, the proposed DDM should obviously have Cabinet level status. “Disaster management” directly affects the lives of all Filipinos.
Currently, efforts to minimize risks against disasters are handled by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), an agency enacted into law in 2010. It “is a working group of various government, non-government, civil sector and private sector organizations, administered by the Office of Civil Defense under the Department of National Defense.” The functions of the NDRRMC are: “to plan and lead the guiding activities in the field of communication, warning signals, emergency, transportation, evacuation, rescue, engineering, health and rehabilitation, public education and auxiliary services such as fire fighting and the police in the country.”
However, if you look at the organizational structure of the NDRRMC, it is amazing it gets anything done at all. The chairman is the defense secretary, with the secretaries of Interior and Local Government, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Science and Technology, and the director general of the National Economic and Development Authority as vice chairmen.
Further, there are 40 members of the NDRRMC from the president of the Social Security System to the secretary of the Department of Tourism. All of them may have important inputs, but remember the old saying that “a camel is a horse designed by a committee.”
The past performance of the current NDRRMC is not the issue. It is a matter of improving the government response from the highest to the local level. The NDRRMC is not an independent organization as it ultimately answers to the Department of National Defense. Since its establishment, the NDRRMC has laid a good foundation for the government’s disaster response, and now the next step must be taken by elevating and broadening its authority.
The Department of Disaster Management needs to be a top priority for Congress and the usual political bickering over who gets the credit should be put aside. The people deserve better services from their elected officials.
Of course, the issues raised by the critics of the proposed DDM are worth considering, especially those coming from Sen. Richard J. Gordon, who is not only Red Cross chairman but a veteran action man in many disasters and crises in the nation’s life. Gordon said the proposed department requires more taxpayers’ money, and the focus on “disaster management” alone is “defensive.” The thrust must be “disaster risk reduction,” like what the agencies comprising NDRRMC are tasked to do.
Congress must also carefully weigh the consequences of transferring the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) to the proposed DDM from the Department of Science and Technology. The DOST, for all its meager resources, has in the past several years built up these two vital agencies into well-functioning, indispensable units in the overall disaster risk reduction and management system.
https://businessmirror.com.ph/the-proposed-department-of-disaster-management/
The President said: “I am calling [on] both houses of Congress to expeditiously craft a law establishing a new authority or department that is responsive to the prevailing 21st-century conditions and empowered to best deliver [an] enhanced disaster resiliency and quick disaster response.”
That idea seems straightforward. The country faces a variety of natural disasters every year that require close coordination between the national and local governments, a variety of different responses based on particular needs, and a comprehensive and holistic planning approach. Preparations and plans must be made for what should be accomplished before, during and after a major event like what the Supertyphoon Yolanda experience taught us.
While the details are still being discussed, the proposed DDM should obviously have Cabinet level status. “Disaster management” directly affects the lives of all Filipinos.
Currently, efforts to minimize risks against disasters are handled by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), an agency enacted into law in 2010. It “is a working group of various government, non-government, civil sector and private sector organizations, administered by the Office of Civil Defense under the Department of National Defense.” The functions of the NDRRMC are: “to plan and lead the guiding activities in the field of communication, warning signals, emergency, transportation, evacuation, rescue, engineering, health and rehabilitation, public education and auxiliary services such as fire fighting and the police in the country.”
However, if you look at the organizational structure of the NDRRMC, it is amazing it gets anything done at all. The chairman is the defense secretary, with the secretaries of Interior and Local Government, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Science and Technology, and the director general of the National Economic and Development Authority as vice chairmen.
Further, there are 40 members of the NDRRMC from the president of the Social Security System to the secretary of the Department of Tourism. All of them may have important inputs, but remember the old saying that “a camel is a horse designed by a committee.”
The past performance of the current NDRRMC is not the issue. It is a matter of improving the government response from the highest to the local level. The NDRRMC is not an independent organization as it ultimately answers to the Department of National Defense. Since its establishment, the NDRRMC has laid a good foundation for the government’s disaster response, and now the next step must be taken by elevating and broadening its authority.
The Department of Disaster Management needs to be a top priority for Congress and the usual political bickering over who gets the credit should be put aside. The people deserve better services from their elected officials.
Of course, the issues raised by the critics of the proposed DDM are worth considering, especially those coming from Sen. Richard J. Gordon, who is not only Red Cross chairman but a veteran action man in many disasters and crises in the nation’s life. Gordon said the proposed department requires more taxpayers’ money, and the focus on “disaster management” alone is “defensive.” The thrust must be “disaster risk reduction,” like what the agencies comprising NDRRMC are tasked to do.
Congress must also carefully weigh the consequences of transferring the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) to the proposed DDM from the Department of Science and Technology. The DOST, for all its meager resources, has in the past several years built up these two vital agencies into well-functioning, indispensable units in the overall disaster risk reduction and management system.
https://businessmirror.com.ph/the-proposed-department-of-disaster-management/
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