Grand Plan at the Kingdom by the River (23)

By Peter G. Jimenea/ The Beekeeper

Our summer is hot but brief. Easter Sunday evening, April 24, it rained and as usual, our whip-dog, Panay Electric Company, plunged us to darkness anew. That evening, a “baroto” capsized off the Kingdoms by the River and Guam (aras). Its two passengers are  missing. In Eastern Visayas and NE Mindanao, communities evacuated from floods and mudslides.

Disasters are in the horizon with the coming rains; this is not yet late for local governments to prepare.

The Kingdom of the Overpriced Palace has formed the Kingdom Emergency Response (KER), a group of paramedics and rescuers that we see on TV giving first aid and rushing victims of natural and human-caused disasters to hospitals.

The municipalities of the Kingdom by the  River have formed their local disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) offices that prepare for, and in actual state of calamities, coordinate actions to save communities, and provide relief and rehabilitation services to them.

There is one LGU which is unprepared: the Kingdom by the  River. What’s going on, King Tura?

Imperial Act 10121 requires the creation of the Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (LDRRMO). Section 12 states: 

Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (LDRRMO). - (a) There shall be established an LDRRMO in every province, city and municipality, and a Barangay Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Committee (BDRRMC) in every · barangay which shall be responsible for setting the direction, development, implementation and coordination of disaster risk management programs within their territorial jurisdiction.

The message is clear: the LDRRMO is mandatory. I.A. 10121 requires each LGU to allot not less than 5 % of funds taken from regular sources for the LDRRMO. Of the total amount, 30 % shall be for “quick response fund” (QRF).

The message is clear, no ifs, no buts. If the budget of the Kingdom by the River is 2.6 billion, five percent of that must go to the Kingdom Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (KDRRMO), that means some 120 million, of which 40 million is for QRF.

Section 21 of the IA 10121 says:

Section 21. Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund (LDRRMF). - The present Local Calamity Fund shall henceforth be known as the Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund (LDRRMF). Not less than five percent (5%) of the estimated revenue from regular sources shall be set aside as the LDRRMF to support disaster risk management activities such as, but not limited to, pre-disaster preparedness programs including training, purchasing life-saving rescue equipment, supplies and medicines, for post-disaster activities, and for the payment of premiums on calamity insurance. The LDRRMC shall monitor and evaluate the use and disbursement of the LDRRMF based on the. LDRRMP as incorporated in the local development plans and annual work and financial plan. Upon the recommendation of the LDRRMO and approval of the sanggunian concerned, the LDRRMC may transfer the said fund to support disaster risk reduction work of other LDRRMCs which are declared under state of calamity.
Of the amount appropriated for LDRRMF, thirty percent (30%) shall be allocated as Quick Response Fund (QRF) or stand-by fund for relief and recovery programs in order that situation and living conditions of people In communities or areas stricken by disasters, calamities, epidemics, or complex emergencies, may be normalized as quickly as possible.

The Kingdom by the River has neither an LDRRMO nor budget for it. Should a natural calamity like Bagyo Prank Bilbil strike, it will be caught unprepared. Its calamity fund is not even one-half the mandated amount.  Under IA 10121, the declaration of a state of calamity is enough to authorize a king to release the calamity fund. Under the kingdom ordinance, despite the declaration of a state of calamity, King Tura cannot release a centavo from the disaster fund. He still must beg of the parliament a specific amount.

The Kingdom by the River has no KDRRMO. At present, the job of preparing for, and responding to disasters, is handled by Jery Boy. Even, then, that task is precarious. Hydrocephallus wants to seize that from him.

See the impact of Reporma kag Pagbag-o campaign platform of King Tura, now taking shape in the incompetent Hydrocephallus expanding his fiefdom in the Kingdom by the River?

Hydrocephallus cannot even perform his own tasks as CAW-CAW chief but still schemes to seize the KDRRMO because he is qualified kunu. As proof for that he waves his MPA  (master in public administration) credential.

Hydrocephallus dropped out from his master’s course at Wist. He did not re-enroll but still got the title. He earned the “degree” kunu from, hold your breath, the Sultan Kudarat State University, Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat.