Koko: Designate permanent disaster risk reduction officers

MANILA, Philippines - To improve government efforts on disaster risk prevention and management, Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III called on Malacañang yesterday to consider designating personnel specifically tasked to do this kind of work.

Pimentel said all it takes is for the President to approve the release of funds for the salaries of permanent disaster risk reduction officers who would be assigned in every city and municipality across the country.

He said a lot of disaster risk reduction officers are merely assigned by their mother units to select cities and municipalities, making them less efficient.

“These officers have to do some multi-tasking that tends to diffuse their efforts when responding to the needs of victims of calamities,” he said.

Recent storms that hit the country have resulted in massive loss of lives and destruction of property in spite of the fact that strong weather disturbances occur on a regular basis every year.

Sen. Loren Legarda, chairman of the Senate committee on climate change, has been calling on all local government units to institute disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation programs to reduce or even eliminate the destructive impact of these weather disturbances.

Apart from DRR workshops, Legarda said geo-hazard maps must be distributed to all cities and towns to help local leaders in their disaster risk reduction and management efforts.

She also expressed hope that the enactment of Republic Act 10174 or the People’s Survival Fund (PSF) would make resources more accessible to those who combat the effects of climate change, especially at the grassroots level.

“The PSF Law, which strengthens the Climate Change Act of 2009, will bring into fruition climate change strategies, plans, and programs within the context of local community-based realities,” she said.

Pimentel, on the other hand, has filed a bill that would require all local health officers to have mandatory training in identifying fatalities of natural and human-induced disasters.

In filing Senate Bill 3368, which seeks to amend the Local Government Code of 1991, Pimentel noted that in most calamities, many Filipinos not only mourn but also bear the pain of uncertainty on the fate of their lost family members.

Under the bill, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council and other appropriate government agencies would be tasked to provide local health officers the mandatory training on the identification of deceased persons.