Senators urged to support creation of Disaster Management Department

Senator Grace Poe is urging her colleagues in the Senate to support the creation of the proposed Department of Disaster Resilience and Emergency Assistance and Management, under her Senate Bill No. 124, noting that it is crucial in keeping food prices affordable.

“We need to establish the Department of Disaster Resilience because typhoons and other weather disturbances like El Nino are the most significant factor why food prices increase. It’s simple supply and demand. If provinces can’t produce certain crops because a typhoon destroyed their fields, but the demand remains the same, then prices will increase,” she said.

Poe cited the quarterly inflation reports of the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), in which every significant increase in food price inflation was attributed to tightening domestic due adverse weather.

“Vegetable inflation went up due to weather-related supply disruptions following the recent typhoons that visited the country. At the same time, adverse weather conditions limit the supply of fish, which also led to higher price increases for fish,” quoted Poe from the BSP’s report for the 4^th Quarter of 2020.

Poe also cited the recent devastation in Cagayan Valley in 2019 due to Typhoon Ulysses which caused around PHP2.12-billion in terms of damage to crops and PHP5-billion in terms of damage to infrastructure in the whole region.

“Cagayan Valley is the food basket of Luzon, accounting for 23% of all palay production and 55% of all corn production in Luzon. Damang dama lalo na sa Metro Manila ang epekto ng kakulangan ng supply ng gulay dahil sa bagyo, na naging dahilan sa pagtaas ng presyo nito sa merkado,” the Senator said.

One of the goals of SBN 124 is to mainstream disaster risk reduction in the areas of agriculture and environment. This can be done by providing technical assistance to farmers and communities in mapping disaster-prone areas, providing crop insurance, and distributing climate-resilient varieties.

Poe also added that keeping food prices stable will help the poorest families cut down on food expenses, which will then enable them to invest more on health and education.

“Creating the Department of Disaster Resilience will help keep food on the table. To borrow from Bill Clinton’s campaign manager in 1992, ‘It’s about resilience, stupid’ ” she emphasized.