MikeLigalig.com

By Jocelyn Uy, Nikko Dizon
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Tropical Storm “Ondoy” (international codename: Ketsana) exposed the flaws in the government’s disaster management system and amplified the need for a separate agency with the power and resources to direct disaster response efforts, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr. said Thursday.

In an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Teodoro said the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), which he chairs, had “no budget for operations.”

“[And] since it is not an operating agency, line government agencies are used to respond to disasters using their own budgets,” he said.

Teodoro also said the disaster caused by Ondoy proved that completely devolving disaster management to local government units, even the affluent ones, could not be part of the solution just yet.

But in the same breath, he said local officials must keep handy leisure craft such as jet skis and airboats other than the rubber boats that were used to rescue tens of thousands of people trapped on their rooftops by rising floodwaters.

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