Review El Niño info drive — senator

A PHILIPPINE senator has filed a resolution to review the government’s public information campaign on countermeasures for the El Niño weather phenomenon, which adversely affects lives and livelihood.

Through Senate Resolution No. 987, filed by Senator Ferdinand “Robin” C. Padilla filed on Monday, the government is urged to enhance its information drive on how El Niño affects agriculture, energy, and education, among others.

“Filipinos must be informed of up-to-date and necessary preparations and responses of the national and local government, as the country has been taking the brunt of dangerous levels of heat index, mainly attributed to the El Nino phenomenon,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.

So far, agricultural damage blamed on El Niño has risen to P2.63 billion. The government has distributed assistance worth P1.1 billion to those affected, the Department of Agriculture said.

President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. said on Monday that the government does not see the need to declare a state of calamity nationwide for the weather phenomenon, saying it would be better to declare these locally.

El Niño has triggered class suspensions in many areas, especially in the Western Visayas, due to extreme heat.

“It cannot be denied that implementing a comprehensive public information drive is necessary to apprise the affected population of the government’s projects, programs and activities to help them cope with the adverse effects of this crisis,” Mr. Padilla said. — John Victor D. Ordoñez