MARQUEZ Go, Baguio City’s lone representative in Congress, is hopeful that the bill creating the Department of Disaster Resilience (DDR) will soon be passed in Congress.
“I think this will be approved and actually this was approved on the committee level and is being discussed in plenary, this is the Department of Disaster Resilience which is a part of two other proposed departments to be created like the Department of Overseas Filipinos and the Department of Water which is a priority of Congress and I think by next month, this will be approved at the House of Representatives and hopefully the following month this will also be approved in the Senate and for the President to sign this measure,” Go said.
In November 2019, the House committees on reorganization and disaster management approved a still unnumbered substitute bill that would create a Department of Disaster Resilience (DDR).
President Rodrigo Duterte, during his fourth State of the Nation Address, called on Congress to pass measures creating new agencies, including the DDR.
“The structure of the Department of Resilience will have its own Cabinet Secretary having its own Undersecretaries and Assistant Secretaries and we will also put up regional offices on the various regions of the country. What we are also discussing here is to not only have an action during disasters but to have programs that are proactive before the occurrence of a disaster aside from conducting an inventory of all situations happening in the country for us to be proactive,” the lawmaker stated.
Go cited houses located in geohazard areas wherein the agency should take action prior to the occurrence of these disasters.
“The most important thing here is that this department will be fully funded and must have an immediate response just in case a disaster will occur. This has three approaches, we need to be proactive before the occurrence during and even after including the rehabilitation,” Go added.
According to the bill, DDR will be the primary agency that is “responsible, accountable, and liable for leading, managing, and organizing national efforts to prevent and reduce disaster risks; prepare for and respond to disasters; and recover, rehabilitate, and build forward better after the destruction.”