Philippines

News - Energy and Environment for Sustainable Development

The Manila Times.NET

Scientists are all agreed that a drought will hit our country soon, an effect of the global El Niño curse that has been visiting us with regularity. The El Niño phenomenon is the warming of the surface water of the eastern and central Pacific Ocean. It occurs every four to 12 years and brings about unusual weather patterns throughout the globe.

Bukidnon congressman and Liberal Party senatorial candidate Teofisto “TG” Guingona is the principal author of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) bill. Both houses of Congress have passed it, the bicameral conference has approved it and the plenary sessions of the House and the Senate have ratified the law crafted by the bicam conference.

Unless all the hands at the Senate were paralyzed last night after it failed to have a quorum in yesterday’s session—because senators siding with Sen. Manny Villar did not want a vote to be taken on the C-5 extension report which censures Mr. Villar—the Senate will prepare today the formal document of the
DRRM bill and soon submit it to the President for her signature.

When she signs it, the DRRM Act will become part of the laws of the land. It will give us the means and
capability to anticipate and surmount the worst that natural disasters can possibly inflict on our people.

The DRRM Law comes at the time it is most and urgently needed. The country is facing the menace of the forthcoming drought and water crisis that are expected to hit our country in the next months.

Calling on President Arroyo to please sign and thereby enact the law soonest, Congressman Guingona has reminded Malacañang and the nation that lack of preparedness—which will be corrected if the DRRM law is carried out properly—allowed typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng to devastate many parts of our country.
Pepeng alone hit Northern Luzon so hard and damaged farms and agri-businesses amounting, according to some estimates, to billions of pesos worth of agricultural products.

“We are now facing the threat of El Niño,” Guingona said, “and we must be more prepared and able to reduce risks than we have been in the past.”

Mr. Guingona, a staunch advocate of disaster mitigation and proactive citizen and government response, said the agricultural sector will not be the only one directly affected by El Niño. Citizens, families, hospitals, malls and restaurants in Metro Manila and other cities will also be seriously inconvenienced and even hurt by water shortages.

The water utilities have in fact been issuing warnings and appeals to their customers to be more judicious in their water usage habits now and even more so in the following months.

Rep. Guingona has also been going after various government agencies and private sector business groups to make sure there will no food shortage as a result of the drought. And appealing to citizens to conserve water—even in his campaign speeches.

“We cannot prevent disasters, these things are bound to happen but we can always prepare for them to minimize loss of life and property,” he said.

The DRRM Law will make our citizens nationwide develop the habit of being prepared—just as some model areas, like those in Bicol, thanks to the efforts of local government officials there.