OFFICIALS of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) are open to the government's plan to make it a regular department.
Ricardo Jalad, OCD administrator who led the closing ceremonies for the observance of the National Disaster Resiliency Month in Baguio City, said both the House of Representatives and Senate may have to fast-track the creation of a Department of Resiliency after President Rodrigo Duterte called it a priority bill in his fourth State of the Nation Address (Sona).
“There is a big chance that the move for OCD to become a department will push through. This time during the start of this Congress, we foresee this will push through. There have been different versions that were filed in both Houses of Congress and since this is a priority bill of the President, this means that this should be prioritized by our solons,” Jalad said.
Duterte, in his Sona, called on Congress to fast-track the creation of a department that will solely focus on disaster and climate change resilience plans and programs.
“With improvement of the law, this will address what is lacking in the current law or Republic Act 10101, particularly the authority of a certain agency who will lead this supposed agency unlike at present wherein the OCD only acts as a bureau under the Department of National Defense. Hopefully, these different versions would be unified because this will have more power as a department than what it presently has wherein OCD stands as a coordinating bureau with other agencies of government,” Jalad said.
Once the OCD becomes a department, it would still respect the autonomy of the local government units during calamities and disasters.
“The department will have its own emergency powers as compared to the OCD, and that emergency powers can only be availed off in times of emergencies. The autonomy of the local government units will always be respected,” Jalad added.
Commodore Albert Mogol, OCD-Cordillera director, said once the department is created, the undersecretary position will be elevated to the Cabinet level.
“The benefit once OCD becomes a department would be faster and immediate coordination among agencies of government, since we would be at the same level. The authority and the support system will know be quicker especially on the aspect of response and recovery operations, there would be one less layer of bureaucracy having quicker action and support, especially here in the Cordilleras,” Mogol said.