The House Committee on Disaster Resilience approved on Tuesday a resolution that allows a declaration of Disaster and Climate Emergency following the series of calamities over the years.

Authored by Albay Representative Joey Salceda, the House Resolution No. 535 authorizes a whole-of-government, whole-of-society and whole-of-nation policy response every time a country is hit by a disaster.

Salceda said, “We will eventually defeat COVID-19, as we have beaten all other pandemics.” He added, “But the climate emergency will be here to stay. Unless we act now to make our communities safer, and to seek international climate justice, we will suffer the long-term consequences of this crisis.”

Moreover, HR 535 proposed the following:

• Declare 2020 as a Disaster and Climate Emergency awareness year;

• Conduct continuous inquiries in aid of legislation and in relation to its oversight functions, on measures being implemented by all concerned national agencies to address the impacts of disasters and climate change on the fundamental rights of Filipinos;

• Ensure the full integration and convergence of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts through the passage of the Department of Disaster Resilience (DDR) bill; and
Enjoin a whole-of-government, whole-of-nation, and whole-of-society mobilization on disaster and climate emergency.

Philippines is highly threatened to climate hazards such as typhoons, earthquakes, volcano eruptions―which the country has all experienced this year―due to its placement along the the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Photo Credit: Joey Salceda