Right-size the jobs to the right people

Two separate legislative bills that were originally pushed in the 19th Congress would have created two new Executive Departments. President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM), however, it seems stepped on the brakes against the proposed creation of the two new Departments. These are the bills on the proposed creation of a Department of Risk Reduction (DRR) and a Department of Water (DoW).

The two bills remain pending at the Senate and at the House of Representatives but henceforth relegated at the back burners of the legislative mills.

Thus, the two bills will not see the light of day any time soon, not unless another major crisis arises.

The Senate and the House of Representatives have only four weeks left before the first regular sessions of the 19th Congress adjourn sine die. Several proposed bills previously lined up for approval included those drawn up and agreed upon at the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).

Initially, PBBM kept an open mind to these two bills when they were first broached to him at the start of his administration. Actually, the two proposed bills are not new but were re-filed legislative measures from the Congresses past. PBBM opted to exercise his powers to issue and sign executive fiats instead of Congress passing these laws to create the two new Executive Departments.

Last Monday, Malacanang released Executive Order (EO) 24 that PBBM signed on April 30. This created the Disaster Response and Crisis Management Task Force that will be composed of the Office of the Executive Secretary; Office of Civil Defense; and the Departments of National Defense, Interior and Local Government, Social Welfare and Development, Health, Trade and Industry, Science and Technology, Public Works and Highways, and Transportation.

Taking effect immediately, EO 24 empowered the President to designate the task force’s chairperson and vice chairperson from among its members, with the member agencies also designating senior officials to act as their representatives to the task force. It will take over from the existing National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC).

At present, the NDRRMC that was created under Republic Act  (RA) 10121 is responsible for ensuring the protection and welfare of the people during disasters or emergencies. It is composed of various government agencies, private sector organizations and the civil sector.

For a disaster-prone country, both from natural and man-made calamities, lawmakers have been pressing for the creation of a full-fledged DRR patterned after the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). In fact, no less than presidential cousin, Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez has filed a bill to create FEMA-like structure for DRR. Several major earthquakes, severe flooding and typhoon damages later, the DRR bill got drowned at the legislative mills. Now, we know why.

On April 27 this year, PBBM signed EO 22 creating the Water Resources Management Office (WRMO) in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). Under EO 22, all water-related agencies will be attached to the DENR, namely, the National Water Resources Board; Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System; Local Water Utilities Administration and the network of local water districts; and the Laguna Lake Development Authority.

Following the issuance of EO 22, Malacanang announced WRMO will be headed by an undersecretary to be appointed by the President upon the recommendation of DENR Secretary Antonia Loyzaga. That is, as I’ve heard, if she is not too busy traveling in and out of the country while the El Niño or long dry spell period has already set in.

Incidentally, Loyzaga was among the Cabinet delegation during PBBM’s official visit to Washington D.C. On the other hand, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno begged off from joining the Cabinet delegation. The 75-year-old Diokno was tested positive for COVID-19 five days before their departure to the US.

Meanwhile, several of the Marcos administration-endorsed bills in Congress are among those up for approval before sine die adjournment on June 2. Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri reiterated this commitment last week during our Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum.

At the resumption of the Senate sessions last Monday, Zubiri announced these priority bills include the proposed amendments to the Build-Operate-Transfer Law, the proposed Medical Reserves Act, the establishment of the Centers for Disease Control, the creation of the Virology Institute, the proposed Internet Transactions Act, the Philippine Passport Act, and the bill creating the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF).

Zubiri noted there are pet bills of the Senators that they in the Upper Chamber will approve before adjournment. This include the proposed measure to revitalize the country’s salt industry and the nine wage hike bills that the Senate chief is pushing to increase to P150 the national daily minimum wage.

For the past ten years, two Presidents of the country created three new Departments. Dividing the Department of Transportation and Communications, a Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) was created by former President Noy Aquino under RA 10844 that he signed on May 23, 2016.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte signed RA11201 on Feb. 14, 2019 creating the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development out of the various government agencies in the defunct Housing and Urban Development Council. Mr. Duterte also signed RA 11641 on Dec. 30, 2021 that took out from the Department of Labor and Employment agencies involved with overseas Filipino workers and created the Department of Migrant Workers.

The proposed establishments of DRR and the DoW were frowned upon as inconsistent with the desired “rightsizing” of the bloated Philippine bureaucracy. The size does not matter but the rationale of this streamlining scheme is to right-size the jobs in the government to the right people.