Gibo assures El Niño mitigation efforts streamlined, systematic

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. emphasized on Sunday that the country's actions to reduce the effects of the El Niño phenomenon are well-coordinated, comprehensive, and methodical.

Teodoro assured President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that the inter-agencies collaboration of the Task Force El Niño with local disaster risk reduction and management councils could effectively address concerns related to the effects of the dry season throughout the country.

“Our local chief executives and DRRMCs are in the best position to determine the needs of their communities during crisis and emergencies,” Teodoro said during the second officials meeting with the task force members at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

“Effectively addressing the effects of El Niño across the country surely requires all hands on deck,” he noted.

During the meeting, Teodoro guided the DILG officials in aligning the efforts of various LGUs and local DRRMCs with Marcos’ directive to utilize a whole-of-government approach in managing the drought season in the Philippines which may persist until next month.

“As in any disaster or calamity, the provincial, city, municipal, and barangay-level DRRMCs should take the lead and get involved,” Teodoro pointed out, as he cited Marcos’ order for systematic, holistic, and results-driven interventions” to address El Niño.

“We should all cooperate and coordinate as we deal with the effects of and concerns on El Niño. We do not need a new structure. What we need is to breathe fresh energy and a new lease on life on the existing networks and links that we have all access to,” Teodoro then urged the task force’s member agencies in response to Marcos’ order.

Teodoro said the government should reignite old connections of collaboration from the regional- and local government levels.

“We have done this in handling past disasters and calamities. The provincial DRRMCs and city DRRMCs should restart reconnecting,” he noted.

On 19 January, Marcos issued Executive Order 53 to streamline, reactivate, and reconstitute the old El Niño task forces under EO 16 (series of 2001) and Memorandum Order 38 (s. 2019).

The order designated Teodoro as chairperson of the task force, while Secretary of Science and Technology Renato Solidum will sit in the task force as his co-chairperson.

EO 53 mandates the task force to develop a comprehensive disaster preparedness and rehabilitation plan for El Niño and La Niña as well as to help the public cope and minimize the devastating effects of the weather system.