The House Subcommittee on Disaster Preparedness chaired by Lanao del Sur 1st District Representative Zia Alonto Adiong approved House Bill 16, in consolidation with 25 other measures that would establish evacuation centers in every province, city, and municipality and appropriating funds therefor.
Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez is principal author of HB 16, along with Tingog Party-list Representatives Yedda Marie Romualdez and Jude Acidre.
The subcommittee is under the jurisdiction of the Committee on Disaster Resilience.
House Bill 16 will be consolidated with HBs 16, 1091, 1714, 2256, 2542, 2773, 2826, 2940, 2995, 3047, 3466, 3498, 3774, 3778, 4145, 4233, 4381, 4685, 5109, 5152, 5158, 5185 and 5211 in order to come up with a substitute bill.
Adiong said the primary objective of the hearing is to conduct initial deliberation on all 26 bills.
“A similar proposal was approved on third and final reading in the past Congress.”
The lawmaker said HB 16 is one of the priority measures of Speaker Romualdez.
Adiong noted that a similar proposal was approved on third and final reading in the past Congress.
“The construction of evacuation centers in the country’s 1,488 municipalities and 146 cities nationwide would be a permanent recourse for evacuation.”
In the explanatory note of HB 16, the authors expressed the belief that the construction of evacuation centers in the country’s 1,488 municipalities and 146 cities nationwide would be a permanent recourse for evacuation in times of calamities and natural or man-made disasters.
HB 16 aims to establish standard-based evacuation centers in every city and municipality in order to decongest temporary evacuation centers in public schools and private facilities.
