President Rodrigo Duterte has declared a state of calamity in Western Visayas and other regions in the country affected by Typhoon “Odette.”.

Duterte signed Proclamation No. 1267 late Tuesday night upon the recommendation of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) to declare a state of calamity in areas battered by “Odette,” particularly Region VI, Region IV-B (MIMAROPA), Region VII (Central Visayas Region), Region VIII (Eastern Visayas Region), Region X (Northern Mindanao), and Region XIII (CARAGA).

A copy of the proclamation was released yesterday, which states that the state of calamity will hasten the rescue, relief, and rehabilitation efforts of the government and the private sector, including any international humanitarian assistance.

The declaration will, among others, effectively control the prices of basic goods and commodities in the affected areas and afford the national government, as well as local government units (LGUs), ample latitude to utilize appropriate funds for the rescue, recovery, relief, and rehabilitation of and the continuation of basic services to affected populations.

The resolution also states that the declaration of a state of calamity will serve as reference for the Philippine government to accept offers of international assistance based on needs.

Meanwhile, citing its own issued Memorandum Order No 60- 2019, the NDRRMC provides the criteria for an area to be declared under the state of calamity.

It states that “a city, municipality, province, or region may be declared under a state of calamity when any of the following conditions brought about by natural and/or human-induced disasters are present:

• at least 15 percent of the forecasted affected population based on science-based projection are in need of emergency assistance, and
• at least 30 percent of the means of livelihood on agricultural, business, and industrial sectors are affected.
• damage to critical and lifeline infrastructure/facilities such as major roads and bridges, power stations, potable water supply systems, and telecommunication facilities that may result to any of the following: emergency response is hindered; LGU basic services are inaccessible and/or paralyzed which further aggravate the situation of communities; or services are disrupted which may take more than a week to be restored.
• widespread destruction of fishponds, crops, poultry and livestock, and other agricultural products,
• disruption of lifelines such as food supply chain, electricity, potable water system, other transport systems, communication system, access to health service, and other related systems that cannot be restored within one week, or in the case of highly-urbanized areas where restoration of the above lifelines cannot be done within 24 hours.
• when there is an extremely high incidence of a certain disease whether communicable or non-communicable, within a community, in a specific period of time, specific health-related behavior, or other health related events clearly beyond normal expectancy.
• significant degradation to environmental and natural resources based on the recommendations of government agencies [e.g. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on forest land degradation and Department of Agriculture (DA) on crop damages and drought.”

According to the NDRRMC, the said aforementioned regions have incurred widespread damage to houses, properties and infrastructure. Likewise, initial reports indicate widespread damage to agriculture as well as disruption to critical lifelines.

“Whereas, all the identified regions meet the requirements to be declared under a state of calamity relative to the aforementioned impacts,” the resolution further read.

In Region 6, the consolidated indicative number of affected population in need of emergency assistance has reach to 416,988 individuals.

Other typhoon-hit regions have the following affected population: Region IVB (MIMAROPA) -18,856 individuals; Region VII (Central Visayas Region) -80,694 individuals;  Region VIII (Eastern Visayas Region) -244,741 individuals;  Region X (Northern Mindanao) – 22,463 individuals; and  Region XIII (CARAGA) 217,080 individuals. (With a report from PNA)/WDJ.