Asian parliamentarians push for greater efforts to reduce disasters

By Marvin Sy (The Philippine Star) Updated November 28, 2010

MANILA, Philippines –  Asian parliamentarians led by Sen. Loren Legarda have agreed to push for greater efforts to institute disaster risk reduction in the policies and programs of the national government, including allocating at least one percent of the national budget to this effort.

Legarda, the United Nations’ Asia-Pacific Regional Champion for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation, was joined by the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction Margareta Wahlstrom and parliamentarians from Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Maldives for the three-day consultative meeting on the issue, which ended yesterday in Manila.

The meeting concluded with the signing of a Manila Call for Action of parliamentarians on applying disaster risk reduction as an instrument for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

Among the calls made in the pact was for the parliamentarians of each state to call on their respective national governments to allocate at least one percent of the national budget and development funding at the national and local levels for reducing disaster risks.

It was acknowledged that spending on disaster risk reduction measures for sustainable development would be more cost efficient than constantly pouring money into post-disaster relief, recovery and rehabilitation activities.

“As we make ill-planned decisions that don’t factor in disaster risks, we continue to let disasters happen, to the detriment of our citizens,” Legarda said.

“Corruption in public construction projects, poor urban governance and environmental degradation have made our people more vulnerable to disasters. This Manila Call for Action is intended to lead our respective countries towards the path of redefining development,” she added.

Legarda said that the minimum one percent of the national budget for proactive disaster risk reduction programs would be very reasonable when compared to the billions needed for relief, reconstruction and recovery whenever natural disasters hit the country.

These disasters come every year and so does the need to set aside a significant amount of funds to cover for the repair and rehabilitation of damaged schools, bridges and other infrastructure on top of the relief efforts for the displaced families.

An average of 20 typhoons hit the country every year and until such time that the government becomes more proactive and undertakes more disaster risk reduction programs, more funds would have to be spent for post-disaster activities.

Legarda argued that having disaster risk reduction programs in place would allow the government to use the funds for the attainment of the MDGs such as poverty alleviation, reduction of child mortality, improvement of maternal health and environment protection.

Wahlstrom said that the costs of disasters would inevitably keep on increasing unless the government undertakes better planning, builds stronger infrastructure and engages the people through the local government units on disaster risk management.

She said that even more losses could be averted with key investments in disaster risk reduction programs.

Legarda said that she is in the process of quantifying the programs and projects that are already being undertaken by the various government agencies and offices in addressing the impacts of climate change and on disaster risk reduction.

While she supports the move to allocate a portion of the national budget for disaster risk reduction programs, Legarda said that she believes a lot of these are already in place in several agencies.

Legarda has advocated for the inclusion of climate change as a legitimate concern in the policies and programs of the various government agencies alongside disaster risk reduction.

She said that she would also push for the passage of the proposed People’s Survival Fund authored by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.

Enrile proposed to strengthen Republic Act No. 9729 or the Climate Change Act by including the People’s Survival Fund as a new provision, which would pave the way for the entry of more funds for the law.

Under the proposal, the new funding sources would come from the following: P50 million as its initial share from the national budget to be adjusted annually as necessary; 10 percent from cash dividends declared by government-owned and-controlled corporations; five percent of what is earned in domestic industry emission reductions that utilize international carbon market instruments; and 10 percent of the 7.5 percent share of the Department of Transportation and Communications in the special vehicle control fund under RA 8794, the law that imposes a “user’s charge” on all motor vehicle users.

The contributions to the fund shall be exempt from donor’s tax and shall be considered as allowable deductions from the gross income of the donor, in accordance with the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 as amended.