ANG kahinaan ng bansa sa mga sakuna ay mas nangangailangan ng agarang kasagutan gamit ang logical answers at hindi ang pagbuo ng bagong ahensya.

Ito ang sinabi ni Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto kung saan ang paglikha ng Department of Disaster Resiliency (DDR) ay hindi sapat para masolusyunan ang suliranin dala ng kalamidad.

“There are many gaps in our calamity response and disaster resiliency. But the greatest gap is not the absence of some central agency, but in deployable logistics to respond to calamities,” ani Recto.

Sinabi pa ni Recto na maraming inisyatiba na magagawa ngayon ang hindi nakasalalay sa pagbuo ng isang bagong kagawaran at sa halip ay pagputol sa red tape na nagpapabagal sa paglabas ng pondo ng kalamidad.

“Merong mahabang documentary requirements. Pero kung walang kuryente, nilipad ang computers, wasak ang opisina, nasugatan ang personnel na magco-collate, paano ka gagawa ng request?

The Quick Response Fund or QRF should be quickly released. In the case of Bicol and Southern Tagalog, ang relief at rehab dapat singbilis ng hangin ni Typhoon Rolly,” paliwanag pa nito.

“You don’t need a new department to set up regional hubs and stockpiles of food, medicine, PPEs and construction materials. Pre-positioning and forward-deploying these will spare us from transporting relief goods all the way from Manila,” giit ng senador.

Inihalimbawa pa ni Recto ang pagbuo ng ‘ready-to-deploy disaster response brigades,’ sa Northern Luzon, Southern Luzon, Visayas, at Mindanao.

Bawat brigada aniya ay dapat na binubuo ng medical companies, construction battalion, mga dalubhasa sa kalinisan at kaayusan na tulad sa Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) at Philippine National Police (PNP).

Maaari aniyang kunin ng pamahalaan ang mga local shipbuilders para magtayo ng fleet of hospital ships.

“We are an archipelago, and when roads are damaged many areas can only be reached by sea. A hospital ship can also be a floating HQ of all disaster response units. Kung Ro-Ro, pwedeng magsakay ng road clearing equipment at power utility linemen. Ang barko, may sariling kuryente—kaya self-contained unit ‘yan,” sabi ni Recto. (NOEL ABUEL)