The Philippine Presidential aspirant and Senator Manny Pacquiao on Tuesday asked for the creation of a “super-agency” to manage the country’s disaster response and government’s climate change policies.
The lawmaker made the suggestion of upgrading the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) into an executive department.
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Pacquiao said there should be integration between the proposed Department of Disaster Resilience (DDR) and the Climate Change Commission. He said this was important to “ensure perceptive and proactive government action on all forms of disasters, natural or otherwise” adding that the strong typhoons that hit the Mindanao as well as Palawan indicate a shifting climate pattern that should “prompt the government to reassess its disaster resilience and disaster adaptation strategies.”
“I grew up in Mindanao and we never really experienced strong typhoons. Biyaya para sa aming mga taga-Mindanao ang tubig. Ngayon lang talaga namin nararanasan ang mga ganitong kalalakas na mga bagyo,” he said.
He said that the climate change caused by global warming has turned Mindanao into a “typhoon alley” from November to December and suggested planting more trees as he blamed the country’s vulnerability to strong typhoons to illegal logging and mining operations. (AW)
