The House of Representatives aims to pass proposed laws creating 3 new agencies for overseas workers, disaster response and water distribution before the year ends, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said Wednesday.

"We want the 3 departments... before the end of the year," he told radio DZMM.

"As we know, kahit ma-create iyan before the end of the year, wala pa naman sa budget iyan tapos kukuha pa ng empleyado, lipatan ng opisina. Even assuming that we can do it by the end of the year, baka middle of next year pa [maging operational]," he added.

(Even if these are created before the end of the year, those departments would have no budget yet and will still get employees, offices. Even assuming that we can do it by the end of the year, it may be take until the middle of next year for the new agencies to be operational.)

Lawmakers are drafting a substitute bill that will replace several versions of the proposed Department of Disaster Resilience, which disagree on whether it should take over relief aid distribution from the social welfare department and how to incorporate police in disaster response, said Cayetano.

On the other hand, all the bills agree that there should only be one Cabinet Secretary held accountable for mitigating disaster, providing first response and rehabilitating destroyed structures, he said.

DZMM, November 6, 2019