One of the country’s most popular lawmaker, Senator Mirriam Defensor-Santiago called on the attention of her colleagues to immediately act on the she filled, which aimed at improving the government’s typhoon preparation and disaster risk reduction efforts. The senator revealed that at least five of the typhoon-related laws she filed are still pending at the committee level.
The 69-year-old Senator Santiago, filed Senate Bill No. 2561, the National Flood Insurance bill which she filed in January 2015. The bill aims to augment state-funded disaster assistance and better meet the escalating costs of repairing damage to residential and other buildings and their contents.
Senator Santiago also noted that three of her bills have also been languishing at the committee since the year 2013. These are SB 394, the Flood Recovery Fund bill; SB 1576, the National Flood and Research Education bill; and SB 1724, the Culvert Safety bill.
According to Sen. Santiago, the inaction on the Flood Recovery Fund bill, filed in July 2013, is depriving flood victims, especially those who are poor, of speedy financial assistance in the form of no-interest loans from the fund the proposed law will create.
Other bills pending since September 2013 is the senator’s Culvert Safety bill, which seeks to ensure that culverts, otherwise known as imburnals or open sewers, are appropriately covered and posted with warning signs to prevent people, especially children, from falling into them during floods.
Sen. Santiago also filed Senate Bill 2376, aimed at mandating the Department of Education to include basic swimming in Elementary and Secondary School curriculum “to prepare children against floods.”