Cong’l oversight committee disaster meets with CDRRM

ZAMBOANGA CITY (ZNS) -  The Congressional Oversight Committee on Disaster headed by Muntinlupa Congressman Rodolfo Biazon met with Mayor Beng Climaco and the members of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council yesterday morning to make an assessment of how the government responds to both man-made and natural disasters.

Focus of the discussion was the Zamboanga siege and the status of the Zamboanga City Roadmap to Recovery and Reconstruction (Z3R) projects.

Accompanying Biazon during the meeting were Congressmen Jose Christopher Belmonte of District 6, Quezon City; Cong. Francis Ashley Acedillo of Partylist Magdalo and Cong. Lilia Nuño.

“Your committee would like to make an assessment of the rehabilitation, reconstruction and recovery. Recovery includes a lot of things especially the economic recovery,” Biazon said stressing that the committee was in the city to listen and to know what legislative response it can craft and put together in order to improve national response and the capability of the local government units to respond to natural and man-made disasters.

Biazon, a former chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines prior to becoming a senator and later congressman, believed unlike other disasters that happened in the country in 2013, the Zamboanga siege, a man-made disaster was something that could have been prevented.

“It is not the intention of the committee to make any investigation unless something that needs to be corrected will be brought up to the committee,” the Muntinlupa congressman said.

The meeting was highlighted by presentations on the progress of the Z3R projects and recovery efforts and the challenges besetting the different agencies in the implementation of the projects.

Mayor Climaco asked the Committee to help ask the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to release the remaining amount in the P3.5 billion funding for the Z3R before the end of 2014 and to call on the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) to download as soon as possible the P91 million as identified under the post conflict needs assessment.

The committee’s visit to the city was concluded with a visit to the Z3R project sites together with personnel from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the National Housing Authority (NHA) and other agencies. (111114)