MikeLigalig.com

THE HONORABLE FREDERICK W. SIAO
Lone District of Iligan City
Vice Chair, Committee on Tourism

Member, Appropriations, Economic Affairs, and 8 other committees                                                                   

Co-Author of NDRRM bill asks:

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO $500M WB DISASTER LOAN?

More than two years have passed since the Aquino administration and World Bank disclosed in 2015 that the WB opened a $500 million loan or credit line to the Philippines for disaster risk management.

The Philippines has been hit by several devastating floods, earthquakes, a drought or dry spell in Mindanao, and now there is the eruption of Mayon Volcano during which the provincial government of Albay has called for help of the national government because their calamity funds have been depleted.

What is the status of this World Bank $500 million loan? When will the Filipino people gain from this credit line and how will the government pay for it?

I am co-author of HB 1648, which seeks to create a NDRRM Authority and is one of ten bills pending in the House.

Only last November 17, NEDA chief Ernesto Pernia asked Congress “to conclude the review of the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management or DRRM Act of 2010 to make our institutions more effective in ensuring that communities in the country are more resilient to natural and man-made shocks.” https://goo.gl/9n3XKz

I again ask Secretaries Pernia and Diokno to convince President Duterte to certify the DRRM bills as urgent, so that both chambers of Congress will expedite those bills and get them passed before the end of the current second regular session in May 2018.

I also ask them to include more funding in the 2019 budget for disaster risk reduction and management, particularly for 4th, 5th, and 6th class municipalities—the most vulnerable and weakest in terms of DRRM.

A DRRM capacity building program for these high risks LGUs and developed by both the DBM and NDRRMC would be the appropriate solution and prevention.

For my part, I, as the Representative of the Lone Congressional District of Iligan City, my concern is that the DRRM programs of Iligan dovetail with those of nearby Cagayan de Oro City and Marawi City because disasters that strike any one of the cities affect the others.

It is for this reason that I will reach out to my colleagues and neighbors in CDO and Marawi to work out a framework and a bill for a metropolitan or inter-city approach to DRRM.

I will also support and convince other congressman to support the additional DRRM funding for the poorest municipalities which the DBM will propose and to get the DRRM Law amendments passed. (END)

REFERENCES:

http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/245751505975856571/Philippines-Second-Disaster-Risk-Management-Development-Policy-Loan-with-a-CAT-DDO-P155656-Implementation-Status-Results-Report-Sequence-04

http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/245751505975856571/pdf/ISR-Disclosable-P155656-09-21-2017-1505975848638.pdf

http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2015/12/22/philippines-new-initiative-to-boost-resilience-against-natural-disasters

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-philippines-worldbank/philippines-gets-500-million-world-bank-credit-line-to-reduce-disaster-risk-idUSKBN0U60CX20151223

Going to travel? Book your place to stay at www.booking.com



Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=89108.0