President Marcos has ordered government agencies to coordinate all plans to mitigate the impacts of El Niño which is expected to persist until the second quarter of next year.

During a sectoral meeting with various agencies on Tuesday, Dec. 12, Marcos ordered an intensified effort to mitigate the effects of El Niño on water, agriculture, energy, health, security, education, and other effects into an updated National Action Plan on El Niño.

Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Renato Solidum Jr. said the President told them to categorize their actions into short and medium terms.

"Ang utos ni (The directive of the) President would be to categorize actions into short and medium. Iyong short, kaagad-agad, iyong madali (The short must be implemented promptly, the easy ones). We have to be realistic," Solidum said in a Palace briefing after the sectoral meeting.

"So marami naman talagang nakaplano at ginagawa na (So, there are a lot of plans and are being undertaken now), we just have to make sure that the coverage would also expand according to the forecast," he added.

The DOST chief reported that based on recent conditions, moderate to severe drought conditions are likely to be felt from February to May 2024.

It is also forecasted that by the end of May, 77 percent of the provinces or 65 provinces in the country will have potential for drought  and 7 percent or six provinces will potentially experience dry spell.

Solidum bared that it is comparable to the worst El Niño effects the country experienced in 1997 to 1998.

"And because of this, we need to further intensify our efforts to make sure that we are ready for this especially on the various fields that were already mentioned like health, water, agriculture, sanitation and of course, peace and order; and we also need to involve everyone in this effort," Solidum said.

The DOST Secretary also explained that the updated national action plan is being divided into five sectors: water security to ensure sufficient water supply; food security to make sure that there is stable supply of key food commodities and income losses are minimized and access to affordable food would be expanded; on the energy security, power interruptions should be minimized; for health, outbreak of diseases and other illnesses would be managed and minimized; and for public safety would be maintained all over the country.

He added that the five major plans would be done by the different concerned departments.

The Secretary also noted that an enhanced communication effort and a massive information campaign on efforts Filipinos and the government can do to mitigate the effects of El Niño are needed.