New FEMA-like agency pushed

“We need to have FEMA just like in the United States.

A new disaster preparedness and management agency that President Rodrigo Duterte plans to create is needed by the country to offset the effect of climate change, Ilocos Sur Governor Imee Marcos said over the weekend.

“So far, we have the NDRRMC which is more of a coordinating body in times of emergency and it is hobbled by lack of budget support. It coordinates and coordinates. Disasters are a fact of life in our country and we need more than a coordinating body for coping with emergencies,” said Marcos in an interview.

The NDRRMC is the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

With over 20 typhoons visiting the country aside from the ever-present threat of earthquake and drought that bring ruin to lives, infrastructure, homes and farm-based livelihood, a government agency solely devoted to disaster resiliency and crisis emergency needs to be established.

The United States’ disaster response agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), can be used as a model that can be adapted for Philippine conditions. FEMA, which dates back to the 1970s, had drawn up resiliency programs that can snap into place even in the event of a nuclear war.

“In order to have resiliency, we need to have FEMA just like in the United States. (In this set-up) it’s more okay to have emergency management, not a coordinating agency like NDRRMC,” Marcos suggested.

The Department of National Defense and Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) assist the NDRRMC. The latter also waits for other government agencies to respond to any eventuality.

But the sad thing about it, according to the governor, is when the response time is slow along with the slow processing of the budget.

“It took two years for the national government to provide funds to repair wrecked infrastructure in Ilocos Norte that were vital to the lives of our residents,” she said.

In the third State of the Nation Address of President Duterte last week, he asked Congress for a bill creating a Department of Disaster Management.

“We need a truly empowered department characterized by unity of command, science-based approach and full time focus on natural hazards and disasters and the wherewithal to take charge of the disaster risk reduction, preparedness and response with better recovery and faster rehabilitation,” Duterte said.

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