Lawmakers file bill creating disaster resilience department

MANILA, Philippines — With the Philippines highly vulnerable to calamities like tropical cyclones, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, administration lawmakers have filed a bill seeking the creation of the Department of Disaster Resilience (DDR).

Incoming Speaker and Leyte 1st District Rep. Martin Romualdez and Tingog party-list Representatives Yedda Marie Romualdez and Jude Acide have jointly sponsored House Bill No. 13, proposing the Disaster Resilience Act.

“It is high time that we create a truly empowered department that will focus on natural hazards and disasters, characterized by unity of command, a science and ICT-based approach and the capacity to take charge of three key result areas: disaster risk reduction; preparedness and response; recovery, rehabilitation and building forward better,” the bill’s explanatory note stated.

According to the bill, the Philippines is now the second nation in the world most vulnerable to climate change and disasters, with up to 19 tropical storms entering its area of responsibility, of which six to nine make landfall.

It cited Typhoon Haiyan, locally known as Yolanda, touted as the world’s strongest typhoon to have made landfall and struck Eastern Visayas in November 2013.

“Nearly 74 percent of the population and 80 percent of the land area are identified as vulnerable to disasters, with the capital of Manila considered ‘extreme risk,’” the bill reads.

The measure underscores that “new normal” requires a more “focused and in-depth attention in the way we understand, prepare and respond to natural disasters.”

In the 18th Congress, a similar measure was filed and approved on Third Reading.

The 57-page bill provides penalties for some “prohibited acts” such as “dereliction of duty which leads to destruction, loss of lives, critical damage of facilities and misuse of funds” and failure to enforce the National Building Code, Solid Waste Management Act and Water Code, among others.

It also penalizes failure to prepare and implement a Local Disaster Response Office or a Provincial Disaster Response Office or a “contingency plan” for hazards frequently occurring within a jurisdiction.