Poe: Gov’t to boost disaster aid funding in ’25 to help storm victims ‘rise from the disaster and restart their livelihood’
Sen. Grace Poe has guaranteed that the proposed P6.452 trillion national budget will allot sufficient funding to strengthen the government’s calamity fund to enable it to bring “fast and timely” relief to communities battered by typhoons hitting the country.
Poe, the chair of the Senate finance committee, said that the committee report on the 2025 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) allocated P21 billion for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund (NDRRMF), or a P500 million increase over the appropriation for 2024.
“The increase is for our people’s urgent and essential needs during calamities,” she said in a statement.
“If communities have the resources, they can make timely responses that can save lives,” Poe added.
The senator made the statement as Luzon and northern parts of the Visayas were battered over the weekend by super typhoon “Pepito” (international name Man-Yi)—the sixth cyclone to hit the country in a month.
Last week, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) admitted that the rapid sequence of cyclones hitting the country was draining the agency’s more than P1 billion quick response fund (QRF).
This prompted the Department of Budget and Management to quickly replenish the DSWD by releasing an additional P875 million for disaster relief, drawn from this year’s NDRRMF.
Records showed that under the 2024 General Appropriations Act, Congress had earmarked P7.92 billion as QRF, shared among nine agencies tasked with disaster response duties, with the DSWD receiving P1.75 billion.
The DBM said that as of Oct. 30, 2024, the DSWD’s QRF was at P557.77 million or 31.87 percent of its total 2024 allocation.
Under the law, the DBM may reallocate funds from the NDRRMF to the QRF once the agency’s QRF drops below 50 percent.
Critical measures
As the Senate resumed plenary debates on the budget, Poe said the calamity fund needs to be increased as it should not only provide for immediate relief but may also address the repair and rehabilitation needs of affected families.
The government needs to pour funding for pre-disaster operations such as early evacuation and other “critical measures” to avert the more serious impact of calamities, Poe said.
Poe expressed hope that the disaster relief fund Congress is allocating should not only serve as “alms to survivors that would feed them for a few days.”
“It should likewise help them to rise from the disaster and restart their livelihood,” she said.
In addition to increasing the NDRRMF, Poe also expressed support for increasing the QRF of the DSWD, which she said is crucial for every disaster response.
“This sequence of typhoons that battered our people is really tragic, which is why we are trying to prepare the national budget carefully so that our government can ensure that their needs are met and we have something to draw funds from during calamities,” she said.
