Senators thumb down dep’t of disaster resilience

Two senators on Monday junked the creation of the Department of Disaster Resilience amid typhoons that hit the country since last week.

A bill creating the Department of Disaster Resilience already hurdled the House of Representatives last September. The bill is now pending before the Senate committee on national defense.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon called the proposal a “knee-jerk reaction” that will further bloat the already bloated bureaucracy.

“I do not see the need for a full department only for disaster resilience. I believe that an overall plan on the number of departments should be in place, instead of a ‘knee-jerk’ push for a creation of certain departments,” Drilon said in a text message to reporters on Monday.

“If it ain’t broke, why fix it?” he added.

Drilon said what needs to be strengthened is the coordination and planning between and among agencies involved in government’s disaster response, including a timely access to disaster funds by local government units which are at the forefront of disaster management.

“The challenge remains on the planning and better coordination,” he said.

“There is already an established system with the NDRRMC and the OCD at the forefront. We do not see an urgent need to change it through the creation of a new department and by appointing a new secretary, undersecretaries and assistant secretaries,” he said.

The Senate chief fiscalizer also said creating a new department will needlessly increase the bureaucracy, instead of streamlining it.

“A new department will mean new offices for undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, bureaus and regional offices, with corresponding support staff and additional maintenance and other operating expenses. The Personnel Services budget today already constitutes at least one third of the national budget,” he stressed.

For 2021, the budget for personnel service is set at P1.316 trillion, up by 11.1 percent from P1.184 trillion this year, he noted.

“I believe that numerous national agencies and GOCCs now have duplicating functions and should be rationalized before we start creating new offices or departments,” Drilon added.

Drilon recalled that when the Duterte administration came to power, then Budget Secretary and now Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno pushed for a rationalization of the bureaucracy.

Drilon also questioned the planned creation of a new department to address overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) concerns.

“There are also proposals to create departments for OFW, for culture, etc. And yet, the Department of Agrarian Reform, whose mandate has been achieved and whose functions can be performed now by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, has not been abolished and continues to be funded by an annual budget of hundreds of millions,” Drilon said.

Drilon earlier expressed concerns that the creation of a new department for overseas Filipinos workers (OFWs) would expose the P19 billion OFW trust fund to the “sticky hands of politicians.”

Senator Panfilo Lacson said it is easy to create a new department but feasibility must first be considered.

“It is relatively easy to pass a law creating new departments. But would it be feasible, and will there be proper funding for it? The Department of Budget and Management says at least P1.5 billion is needed to set up the department. That does not yet include added salaries, capital outlay like office facilities, furniture, vehicles, MOOE, and CIF,” Lacson said in a statement.

Lacson added that during the first public hearing last January, “no less than the stakeholders who served as resource persons also cited concerns about creating a new department for disaster and risk reduction:”

First, there is a policy direction for right-sizing the bureaucracy that is already bloated.

Second, the implementation especially of recovery and rehabilitation will be carried out not by the proposed new department but by existing agencies such as the Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Social Welfare and Development, and Department of Health.

Third, we can see that the newly created departments like the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) and the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development cannot be properly funded, or at least are not given the appropriate funding to work properly.

He cited the DICT which for two budget years in a row has been asking for additional budget to establish and develop the country’s national broadband program and free Wi-Fi services for all government agencies. But the DBM has provided just a paltry sum – in the case of the national broadband program, providing only P900 million out of the agency’s request for P18 billion.

“Having said that, a dedicated office under the Office of the President with a Cabinet rank and full authority to mobilize the concerned government agencies before, during and after calamities both natural and man-made – from policy-making and planning all the way to implementation – would do the job with much less funding and minimum number of staff and personnel. In contrast, a council-type organization like the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council has a very limited capability mainly because it is merely coordinative,” he added.