MikeLigalig.com

by YEN MAKABENTA
October 10, 2014 10:40 pm


As Victor Hugo said, this may be “an idea whose time has come.”

To replace and retire the unpronounceable and tongue-twisting NDRRMC (National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council), I earnestly propose that Congress create by law the Disaster relief and Management Agency – or DRAMA, for short.

It’s a word that can easily be remembered by citizens of every age, whether disaster victim or not. It’s a change of name that will spare our hapless broadcasters from running out of breath. It will be a memory aid for government officials who forget their membership in multiple corporations and councils.

In the United States, they call their disaster agency FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). In most countries, they simply term as agencies their government mechanisms for coping with disasters and catastrophes. They don’t employ councils and commissions to deal with an emergency, probably because of the maxim that a camel is “a horse designed by committee.” (The maxim has been attributed to Vogue magazine).

With an earnest push in both houses of Congress, we could have a law creating a new disaster management agency by January, perhaps even in time for the visit of Pope Francis. For a change, the Congress railroad could be put to good use. We should be able to tell the world by then that our country has made significant adjustments in the wake of Haiyan/Yolanda, and that we are not mere gluttons for punishment from Mother Nature’s occasional tantrums.

The formula could be the repeal of the law creating the NDRRMC, which is outdated, or the passage of a completely new legislation. I am pleased to note that Sen. Teofisto Guingona has filed a bill that’s roughly along this line. It will be a pleasure on my part to compare and blend ideas with what the Senator has in mind.

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The big drawback of this approach is that, as in UN security challenges, it tries “to surround the problem” with a lot of bodies and personages, and it ends up not accomplishing anything. Witness what has happened in Syria, where the situation has turned into a full-blown civil war, and the casualties now total over 200 thousand.

In February 2010, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) was renamed, reorganized, and expanded.

The council membership includes nearly every factotum in the Aquino administration and every member of the Cabinet.

The council is chaired by the Secretary of National Defense, who under the current administration is Voltaire Gazmin.

Also taking high positions in the disaster management hierarchy are Secretary of Interior and Local Government Mar Roxas; Secretary of Department of Social Welfare and Development Dinky Soliman; and NEDA Director-General Arsenio Balisacan.

It’s proof of the unwieldiness of the institutional design that also included as council members are the Chairman of the Commission on Higher Education; the presidents of the GSIS and the SSS; and the President of the Liga ng Mga Barangay. It’s as if Congress decided to include any official who looked like a disaster.

More at: http://www.manilatimes.net/disaster-relief-management-agency-drama/133386/

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