President Marcos has approved the reactivation of an El Niño task force on Tuesday, Dec. 19.
Malacañang said Marcos ordered the "reactivation and reconstitution" of Task Force El Niño during a Cabinet meeting to mitigate the effects of the phenomenon that is seen to persist until the end of second quarter of next year.
The task force would focus on five key sectors such as water, agriculture, energy, health, and public safety.
According to Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, the President will issue an executive order (EO) for the prompt preparation, swift interventions, and continuous monitoring on the possible effects of El Niño around the country.
"This EO po will come out as soon as possible," Teodoro said.
Marcos is reactivating the task force that was activated in 2001 through EO No. 16, Teodoro added.
A national action plan has already been crafted by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and has been submitted to the President. This, Teodoro said, became the basis of Marcos in creating the task force.
Under the task force, there will also be an El Niño platform that will be used to collect data for interagency coordination and decision making, and for the information dissemination to the public.
Environment Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga said the President has instructed "to have our infrastructure investments be multi-purpose" in order for one investment to generate several values such as flood control, irrigation, and water supply and distribution.
Last week, Marcos ordered the creation of a task force to address the impacts of El Niño during a sectoral meeting.
The El Niño phenomenon is expected to continue through December to January 2024, and it will persist until March to May 2024, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) said.
DOST Secretary Renato Solidum bared that the effects of El Niño will still be covering the first and second quarter of 2024 "but then the peak of El Niño, in terms of drought, will be April of 2024."
This was "slightly different" from the forecast last week, Solidum said.