DDR seeks to lessen Tisoy-like damage

A damaged entrance of the Legazpi Airport in Albay. (CAAP)

The vast destruction caused by Typhoon “Tisoy” will be a prime consideration when Congress deliberates anew on the bill that proposes the creation of a Department of Disaster Resilience (DDR).

Among the heavily-devastated structures was the Legazpi City airport in Bicol, located in the second district of Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, the principal author of the DDD bill.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) and the Department of Transportation (DOTr) already sent teams to assist in the immediate resumption of flights.

“The Philippines had suffered enough actual and potential losses, damages and disruption due to the increasing frequency of ferocious climate events, and the government should now be decisive in creating a full department to effectively carry out programs required to address the threats, respond to disasters and develop the culture of resilience needed for survival,” Salceda, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a television interview.

Albay was a model for “zero casualty” and disaster resilience when Salceda was its governor for nine years, gaining recognition from the United Nations.

In 2014 during the onslaught of Typhoon “Glenda,” amid reports of numerous casualties and injuries elsewhere, no death was recorded in Albay.

Inside the heavily-damaged Legazpi Airport in Albay. (CAAP)

The success of Albay’s disaster risk reduction program became the template for Salceda’s DDR bill in Congress.

“Zero casualty is not statistics. It is a body of commitment that ensures nobody falls by the wayside due to poverty, exposure, or even stubbornness,” said Salceda.

“The zero casualty goal could be attained, when the people’s effort of taking care of themselves has become routinary as taking a bath or eating. It is the same culture of resilience that is the core principle of the DDR proposal.”

Salceda said continuous training had made Albayanos aware of risks in time of disasters.

The proposed DDR, marked urgent by President Rodrigo Duterte himself, is a full-blown department to headed by a Secretary and supported by undersecretaries, assistant secretaries and directors.

It is tasked to lead in the “continuous development of strategic, holistic and systematic approaches to disaster management, including preparedness, prevention, mitigation, response, recovery and rehabilitation, and anticipatory adaptation strategies, measures, techniques and options,” Salceda explained.

As an urgent policy response, it enjoins a whole-of-government, whole-of-nation and whole-of-society mobilization on disaster and climate emergency, in behalf of climate-vulnerable LGUs, communities and stakeholders in the country.