NDRRMC ready to take over as COVID-19 response platform — exec

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) is prepared to be the government’s platform for COVID-19 response, its executive director Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad said Wednesday.

This was after Malacañang said on Tuesday that NDRRMC will replace the National Task Force Against COVID-19 (NTF) in line with the Marcos administration's policy on streamlining government processes.

“Handang handa kasi 'yung NTF noon ay NDRRMC naman 'yun, pareho-pareho ang bumubuo ng ahensya dyan (The NDRRMC is really ready because the NTF and the NDRRMC are composed of same agencies),” he said in a radio interview.

Jalad added the Department of Health (DOH) would remain as the lead agency of the COVID-19 response.

“Whether NTF 'yan o NDRRMC, kumbaga pinalitan lang ang pangalan pero DOH pa rin ang mangunguna diyan dahil ang problema ay related sa health,” he said.

(Whether it is NTF or NDRRMC, the name was just changed but the DOH would still lead because the pandemic is a problem related to health.)

According to him, the DOH and the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) will discuss if the subgroups under the NTF will be either adopted or reconstructed under NDRRMC’s COVID-19 response platform.

Asked about if NDRRMC will take more medical actions in its COVID-19 response, Jalad defended the previous designations of former military generals to NTF positions.

He pointed out that some aspects of COVID-19 response do not only need medical expertise such as logistics and the building of facilities.—AOL, GMA News