Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte (Facebook)

A House leader is prodding the Senate to speed up passage of its version of the measure calling for the construction of permanent evacuation centers nationwide.

Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte made this call even as he noted that typhoon "Amang"--the first typhoon to hit the country this year--drove over 12,000 people from their homes in his native region of Bicol.

"This month points anew to the urgency for the Congress to write new legislation putting up permanent evacuation centers all over the country for people who have been forced to flee their homes by disasters, calamities, floods, storm surges and other severe climate disturbances, as well as fire, and the outbreak of diseases that pose imminent danger to life and property,” he said.

Villafuerte, the majority leader of the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA), said the House of Representatives had already passed House Bill (HB) No.7354 on third and final reading.

Villafuerte's HB No.1091 had been incorporated in HB No.7354 which, according to the veteran lawmaker gives a big say to local executives in identifying and subsequently running these permanent evacuation centers in their respective localities.

Sessions in both the House and the Senate are set to resume on May 8.

Villafuerte, a former three-term Camarines Sur governor, first pushed for the establishment of permanent evacuation centers nationwide after typhoon “Ompong” struck in September 2018.

HB No.7354, whose lead authors include House Speaker Martin Romualdez and Tingog Party-list Reps. Yedda Marie Romualdez and Jude Acidre, tasks the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) to identify with local chief executives the areas to be prioritized in the establishment of the permanent evacuation centers, Villafuerte said.

Once the evacuation centers are put up by the DPWH, the local government units (LGUs) are tasked to operate and maintain them.

“The world’s failure to reverse  climate change is expected to spell stronger and deadlier typhoons and other natural hazards in the years ahead, hence  exacerbating for both the national and LGUs this  recurring challenge of providing interim shelter to hundreds of thousands or even millions of families forced to leave their homes during cyclones, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other calamities,” Villafuerte said.

“And with last year’s return of in-person  academic classes all over the country as part of the post-pandemic ‘new normal’ scenario, there is more pressure  on  the national government and LGUs to immediately house disaster-affected evacuees in shelters other than public schools, so as not to disrupt the back-to-normal teaching mode for our teachers and students,” he added.