MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday called on Congress to establish an authority or department to best deliver enhanced disaster resiliency and response.
“I am calling both houses of the Congress to draft a law establishing an authority or department that is responsive to the prevailing 21st century conditions and empower to best deliver the enhanced disaster resiliency and quick disaster response,” Duterte said in his second State of the Nation Address (SONA).
“Disaster resiliency of Manila and surrounding provinces is a matter of urgent concern.”
The President also directed the cabinet cluster on climate change and disaster risk management to coordinate with the local government unites, private sector, communities that may be affected by a massive earthquake that may originate from the West Valley fault, which stretches from Aurora to Laguna.
A Phivolcs and Geoscience Australia study earlier revealed that as many as 31,000 people could die should a quake of at least magnitude 7.2 hit the metro.
“While the law is drafted with extreme urgency, we need to undertake immediate action to ensure disaster resiliency and response in the greater Manila area which is our country’s seat of governance, center of business, commerce and academe,” he said.
“We need to act and fast.”
The President also cited the magnitude 6.5 earthquake that struck Visayas on July 6 as he warned mining companies of their contribution to the destruction of the environment.
Rodrigo Duterte, Congress, NDRRM, disaster risk and response management, SONA2017