Marcos tells agencies: No room for complacency on climate change

In the aftermath of the devastating impact of successive cyclones and the Southwest Monsoon, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. urged government agencies to remain vigilant and avoid complacency in addressing the threats posed by climate change.

Palace Press Officer Claire Castro told reporters on Tuesday that Marcos had called for a meeting with various government agencies in light of the flooding that occurred across Luzon.

Castro said several countries across the world have been impacted by storms, monsoons, and floods, including Nepal, China, Laos, Pakistan, India and Kenya.

“Ang utos ni Pangulong Marcos Jr., huwag tayong magpakampante,” Castro said. (President Marcos Jr. said not to be complacent.)

“Seryosohin natin ang banta ng climate change. Kahandaan ang susi para malampasan natin ang panganib nito,” she added. (Let us take the threat of climate change seriously. Readiness is the key to overcoming its danger.)

The Department of Education has been instructed to instill in children the effects of climate change.

The continuous rains and floods destroyed several houses and several infrastructures. A bridge in Tarlac City collapsed, killing at least one person. Some riverside houses in Lubao, Pampanga also collapsed into strong currents.

For local government units, Castro cited two master plans that could have prevented people from building structures in dangerous areas: a 1941 master plan in Metro Manila, as well as a 1936 plan in Cebu.

In an interview with DZBB, Project NOAH executive director Mahar Lagmay said the government is playing catch up now because of the failure to implement these two plans. It should be noted that while Castro said that the Cebu plan was from 1936, Lagmay said that it was from 1939.

“'Yung problema natin ngayon ay accumulation ng dekada, kasi 1941 pa 'yung sinabi ko, hindi to kakaiba doon sa problema doon sa pagsunod sa masterplan ng Cebu na 1939 'yung development nila, eh hindi ito nasunod,” Lagmay said.

(The problem now is the accumulation of the decades, because the 1941 plan that I was saying; it is not different from the masterplan of Cebu during its development, but this was not followed.)

Decades of urban development and population growth have led to structures being built in areas that should have been left alone, including riverbanks.

Castro reaffirmed that if these structures had not been built there, then there should have been no infrastructure to be devastated.

“Ayon sa Pangulo, dapat ipatupad ang batas pati ang ‘no-build zone’. Huwag nang mamulitika, ipatupad ang batas at dapat ipaliwanag sa lahat na kailangang mas maging istrikto sa pag-implementa ng batas para sa ating kaligtasan,” she said.

(The President said that the law should be enforced, including a ‘no build zone’. Let us not be political and implement the law, and it should be explained to everyone to be stricter when it comes to enforcing environmental laws.)

Castro did not name a personality or agency responsible for the non-implementation of these plans.

However, Commissioner Albert dela Cruz of the Climate Change Commission had previously lamented that the other agencies do not listen to them—even though Marcos himself is the chair of the body.

Castro said that this will not happen again, saying that the required policies and projects that could mitigate the effects of climate change must be implemented.

She admitted, however, that not all of them will be accomplished before Marcos’ term ends. —LDF/RF, GMA News