"Ofel" barrels through the Philippines (DOST-PAGASA)

The unusual streak of six destructive typhoons that struck the country from October to November should convince Congress to hasten approval of the bill establishing a Department of Disaster Resilience (DDR) this 2025.

Thus, said Camarines Sur 2nd Rep. LRay Villafuerte, who noted that such an agency would make local communities more resilient against the increasingly calamitous impact of climate change-induced violent weather.

Villafuerte said the House of Representatives has moved closer to making this proposed DDR happen following the recent approval by the House Committees on Government Reorganization and on Disaster Resilience in a recent joint meeting of the creation of this new department.

The House panels described it as the foremost government office tasked to transform especially the country’s high-risk communities into safe, adaptive, and disaster resilient ones.

“The increasingly calamitous impact of climate-induced violent weather, as best demonstrated in the record devastation wrought by the unprecedented streak of six tropical cyclones that struck the Philippines in rapid succession in less than a month, should prompt the 19th Congress to act before the end of its third and final regular session on a proposed law creating the DDR,” said Villafuerte, pointing to the homestretch of the 19th Congress this new year.

Villafuerte, a former three-term Camarines Sur governor, was a co-author of the substitute bill on the DDR passed in November 2024 by the two House panels.

The committee-approved unnumbered House bill (HB) was the substitute version of 36 similar DDR bills, including HB No.13 that was principally authored by House Speaker Martin Romualdez. 

“Under the approved bill, the DDR is envisioned to be the principal government office to lead, organize and manage efforts on reducing disaster risks, preparing for and responding to disasters, and undertaking the post-disaster recovery and rehabilitation of the affected communities, said Villafuerte, who is president of the National Unity Party (NUP).

At present, the government’s programs on disaster preparedness, disaster operations and post-disaster recovery and rehabilitation are being overseen by  the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), which is led by the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) under the  Department of National   Defense (DND).

As aptly pointed out by Romualdez, Villafuerte said the would-be DDR shall upgrade the institutional capacity of the government for disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM), minimize  the vulnerabilities especially of high-risk places to natural disasters, and beef up the resilience of communities  against the effects of increasingly calamitous natural disasters resulting from climate change.

Villafuerte said that as the lead DRRM implementing agency, the bill tasks the proposed DDR to oversee and carry out national, local and community-based disaster resilience, management, response, recovery and rehabilitation programs, in partnership with the appropriate   national government agencies, local government units (LGUs), civil society groups and other concerned stakeholders.

He recalled that similar DDR bills were passed by the House in the previous 17th Congress and 18th Congress, but both proposals went nowhere as  counterpart measures were not approved in the Senate. 

The Philippines went through one of its most devastating storm seasons in 2024 with 18 tropical cyclones, including six strong ones that caused heavier damage across the country in striking one after the other in less than a month over the October and November months.  

As confirmed by the  Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), four cyclones were active simultaneously last Noember in the Western Pacific for the first time since 1951, which PAGASA Climate and Agrometeorology Division chief Thelma Cinco said “could be indicative of climate change".

After severe tropical storm Kristine arrived on Oct. 26, our country was battered by storms Leon, Marci, Nika, Ofel and then Pepito, the sixth cyclone that left the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR) last Nov. 18.  

According to the Nov. 19 update of the NDRRMC, typhoons Nika, Ofel and Pepito had affected a total of 1.8 million people, displacing 617,336 of them, and of whom 355,441 took shelter in 3,176 evacuation centers (ECs).

The Philippines has become increasingly vulnerable to climate change as  global warming had  intensified the strength of storms, causing faster wind speeds resulting from the warmer seas, higher humidity and more unstable atmosphere.