BETTER DAYS Senator Sonny Angara Recent surveys by Pulse Asia and the Social Weather Stations found that a majority of Filipinos were ready to face the new year with optimism and hope. Unfortunately, for many of our countrymen, the new year came with several challenges. Two in particular come to mind. First were the floods and landslides caused by incessant rains brought by the amihan and a shear line weather system that started over the Christmas weekend. According to the Jan. 5, 2023 situational report from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), more than 680,000 persons have been affected — across 161 cities and municipalities in up to 35 provinces. Fifty-two individuals have reportedly died and 16 injured, while 18 are still listed as missing. Some 5,100 homes were damaged at an estimated cost of ₱101.615 million. The damage to agriculture is believed to have already amounted to ₱247 million spanning more than 7,700 hectares of crops. The other challenge centered around the breakdown of the country’s Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) system at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) on the first day of the year. The breakdown was reportedly caused by a power outage that would only be rectified after eight hours. Up to 65,000 passengers across some 360 flights were left stranded. The breakdown of the CNS/ATM system also effectively disrupted the country’s entire airspace, which meant that even commercial airlines that were only overflying had to be redirected. In each instance, government agencies tried their earnest to respond to the crisis and safeguard the interests and welfare of the people affected. Just as first responders from the LGUs did their best to evacuate and rescue residents affected by the rains and floods, so did civil aviation authorities and government workers from the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) deploy emergency response teams to address the problem and rein in the chaos. Such extreme events demand some form of post-mortem analysis and assessment. Hopefully, this can be jumpstarted for the air traffic system problem with the upcoming public hearing of the Senate Committee on Public Services to be chaired by Senator Grace Poe. But while accountability must be exacted, such outlier instances can only be mitigated if the relevant systems and institutions in place are capacitated and empowered to prepare and respond in the proper fashion. This is the general aim of many of the measures we have filed. For instance, during the previous 18th Congress, it was upon the recommendation of the Safe Travel Alliance with inputs from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) that we filed a bill strengthening the CAAP. We refiled this measure in the present 19th Congress under SBN 1003. Among the salient points of the measure include updating the composition of the CAAP Board to include private sector representation and strengthen its safety and oversight structure; increasing the term of the CAAP Director General to a fixed term of eight years to ensure long-term continuity and proper turn-over of operational and highly technical knowledge and know-how; enhancing its fiscal autonomy; and exempting the authority from the GCG Law and the Salary Standardization Law so that it can structure compensation and benefit package to attract professionals with the specialized skills and experience needed. Another example is the measure creating the Department of Disaster Resilience so that a separate line agency can focus all year-round on mitigating the destructive effects on our people of increasingly extreme weather events. We should reasonably expect that more outlier events will occur in the future, which is why it is essential that we take steps to empower our systems and institutions to prepare for and respond properly to these kinds of instances. Email: [email protected]| Facebook, Twitter & Instagram: @sonnyangara Senator Sonny Angara has been in public service for 18 years — nine years as Representative of the lone district of Aurora, and nine as Senator. He has authored, co-authored, and sponsored more than 330 laws. He is currently serving his second term in the Senate.