Task Force El Niño being eyed

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. eyes issuing an executive order to reactivate Task Force El Niño to address and mitigate the potential repercussions of the dry period as soon as possible, several Cabinet officials said.

In a Palace briefing late Thursday afternoon, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said the task force will allow the country to prepare for the drought expected until the first half of 2024.

Teodoro, one of the two chairpersons of the said El Niño panel, said the task force's reactivation was raised during the 15th Cabinet Meeting in Malacañang Palace earlier in the day.

"The President will issue an executive order to prepare early and swiftly resolve potential interventions and continuously monitor and anticipate the possible effects of El Niño," Teodoro said.

"This executive order will come out as soon as possible," he said, noting that the government would focus on "water security, food security, energy security, health security and public safety."

The task force's co-chair, Science and Technology Secretary Renato Solidum Jr., stated that a "strong" El Niño won't affect until the first or second quarter of 2024.

Environment Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga, who was also present during the press briefing, said that Marcos has issued an order requiring water-related infrastructure projects to be "multipurpose."

According to Yulo-Loyzaga, the government collaborates with businesses to carry out water-related projects.

"These three — availability, access, affordability — are most important in terms of water security," she said.

"(President Marcos) wants to have our infrastructure investments be multipurpose so that one investment in a kind of infrastructure can generate several values, whether for flood control in the end, whether for irrigation or eventually for water supply and distribution. Making these multipurpose investments also one way to extract the optimal value from a single investment in the infrastructure," Yulo-Loyzaga added.