House approves two resolutions calling for more funds to help evacuees, rehabilitate towns

January 22, 2020

The House of Representatives, holding its plenary session in Batangas City Tuesday, approved twin resolutions calling for additional funds to help evacuees and rehabilitate their towns.

The House also opened deliberations on the bill creating the Department of Disaster Resilience (DDR), one of President Rodrigo Duterte’s priority measures.

“We are here to show Batangas, including Cavite and Laguna, that we love you as we love ourselves. Yes, there is a risk of being here, but you are facing that risk every single day. So, what is one day for your National Congress, the House of the People, to be here with you to listen and to hear so that we may legislate effectively?” Cayetano told the plenary.

The session’s venue is beside one of the biggest evacuation centers.

The plenary then adopted Majority Leader Ferdinand Martin Romualdez’ motion to allow Batangas officials led by Gov. Hermilando Mandanas to directly address Cayetano in the plenary.

Batangas Rep. Mario Vittorio Mariño, who chairs the House committee on government reorganization, sponsored the House Bill No. 5989 or the DDR under committee report No. 200.

Under the bill, the DDR will be the primary agency “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.”

The DDR will still have the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) as its core organization to which the Climate Change Commission Office, the Health Emergency Management Bureau of the Department of Health (DOH), the Disaster Response Assistance and the Disaster Response Management Bureau of the Department of Social Welfare and Development will be integrated.

The Speaker assured the local officials and the evacuees that the House will effect institutional changes through the crafting of laws “that will guarantee that even if we’re no longer here (in Congress), everything will continue.”

Before the session, the House committee on appropriations voted to endorse the DDR bill and approved its budgetary component.

The committee chaired by Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab took the vote three hours ahead of the out-of-town plenary session of the House in Batangas City.

Congressmen then adopted House Resolution No. 662 “expressing the support and commitment of the House of Representatives to work with all the concerned agencies to pass the proposed supplemental budget to expedite effective and responsive assistance to those affected by the Taal Volcano eruption.”

The measure, which was authored by Cayetano, Romualdez and other House leaders, was filed after President Duterte called for the passage of a P30 billion supplemental budget to help the victims of the volcanic eruption.

Deputy Speaker Mikee Romero of 1-Pacman party-list said the P16-billion 2020 national disaster risk reduction and management fund "is hardly enough even for this one calamity that has visited our people in Cavite and Batangas."

Of the P16 billion, P3.5 billion is reserved for the rehabilitation of Marawi City, while P5 billion is allocated for communities devastated by last year’s earthquakes in the Davao-Socsargen regions. 

“Thus, the President can only use P7.5 billion of this year’s calamity fund for disasters," Romero said in a statement. "We have to give the Chief Executive enough money to respond to calamities.”

House Bill No. 5998, “An act appropriating the sum of P30 billion as supplemental appropriations for 2020, and for other purposes” was filed Monday before the resolution was approved by the plenary.

The measure was introduced by Batangas Reps. Vilma Santos-Recto; Elenita Milagros Ermita-Buhain; Raneo Abu; Ma. Theresa Collantes; Lianda Bolilia and Mariño.

Lawmakers then approved House Resolution No. 655 “urging the immediate release of funds for the aid relief, resettlement, rehabilitation, livelihood, development and social programs and services to communities adversely affected by the Taal Volcano Eruption, and directing the appropriate House of Representatives committee to immediately call the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) for a House committee briefing to assess the situation and determine the needs of the affected localities and the total budget requirements to address the calamity.” DMS