Retired police general and senatorial aspirant Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar has vowed to push for permanent evacuation centers to address the lack of facilities for victims of calamities, particularly typhoons.
Eleazar said the adverse effects of typhoon "Odette" in the Visayas and Mindanao only highlighted the need not only for permanent but strong evacuation centers where local residents could seek refuge in times of typhoons which regularly visit the country every year.
He said the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) should be allocated with a specific budget for the construction of permanent evacuation centers.
In cases of budget constraints, the national government could push for partnership with the private sector, like what the Provincial Government of Albay which partnered with the Spaish government for the construction of permanent evacuation centers in some parts of the province.
"Our country is regularly visited by typhoons every year and evacuations are normal scenarios. To have strong permanent evacuation centers is what we need because this is a necessity to tke care of our kababayans, especially the poor," said Eleazar.
Typhoon Odette, which hit the country last week, affected 1.1 million Filipinos in central and southern Philippines. It claimed the lives of at least 375 people, according to the Philippine National Police.
More than 417,000 individuals were evcuated and now cramming in 2,500 evacuation centers across 10 regions nationwide, based on the data provided by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.