Palace reactivates El Niño Task Force

Malacañang has reactivated the El Niño Task Force to mitigate the effects of the weather phenomenon associated with severe drought.

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea issued Memorandum Order 38 on August 13 reconvening the task force which was formed in 2001.

The Palace also reconstituted the membership of the task force with the Socioeconomic Planning Secretary as overall head.

The sector heads are the Secretary of Agriculture (food security), Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources (water security), Secretary of Energy (energy security), Secretary of Health (health), Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (safety).

The other members of the task force are the secretaries of science and technology, national defense, social welfare and development, labor and employment, trade and industry and the Presidential Communications Operations Office.

Also part of the task force are director general of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, Office of Civil Defense Administrator and Executive Director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, National Food Authority Administrator, National Irrigation Authority Administrator and the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration Administrator.

Citing information from the weather bureau, the Palace said El Niño was expected to persist until this month.

“The recurrence of the El Niño phenomenon calls for the implementation of both short-term and long-term solutions to ensure food, water and energy security, safeguard livelihoods and improve the country’s disaster and climate resilience,” the memorandum stated.

The memorandum also directed the task force to revise and update the Roadmap for Addressing the Impacts of El Niño and monitor the implementation of short and long-term solutions and programs.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said last week that the El Niño phenomenon impacted the country’s economy in the second quarter of 2019, which grew 5.5%, the slowest expansion in four years.

El Niño was responsible for the contraction in output of water-sensitive crops such as palay, which contracted by 5.5%, and corn declining by 8.4%.

Pernia said the agriculture sector must be equipped “with an effective climate change and disaster risk reduction program that will reduce production losses owing to weather disturbances.”

He also called for the introduction of  technological solutions to build resiliency and proper implementation of the rice tariffication law to help the country achieve food security, protect farmers from risks, and make the agriculture sector more profitable. —LDF, GMA News