Marcos revives El Niño task force

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is set to issue an executive order to reactivate Task Force El Niño to address and mitigate the possible effects of the dry spell quickly, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said Tuesday. 

At the Palace briefing, Teodoro said this will allow the country to prepare for the drought expected until the first half of 2024. 

The task force will focus on food security, water security, energy security, health, and public safety issues due to the phenomenon's effects.

“Nagpi-prepare po kami ng extended El Niño scenario just for service continuity and due care. This EO will come out as soon as possible,” said Teodoro.

“This EO is basically for inter-agency cooperation on the national level. But we know the first responders are really the local government units. So the DOST will inform them on the conditions whether or not they can declare a state of calamity and use their calamity funds,” he added.

Teodoro also mentioned the president instructed government agencies to have the infrastructure investments to be multi-purpose in order to generate several values, whether they are for flood control, irrigation or water supply and distribution.

The EO is expected to be signed and released by the end of the week. 

According to Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Secretary Renato Solidum Jr., the El Niño effect will likely be felt from March to May 2024. 

“El Niño will be covering the first to second quarter of 2024,” said Solidum, who is set to sit as the co-chair of the task force.

“The drought will peak again by April 2024, with 63 provinces possibly experiencing drought conditions and 12 provinces experiencing dry spell conditions,” he added.

On December 13, Marcos said that the Task Force El Niño would be restructured to have a more extensive measure to mitigate the effects of El Niño.

''We have created actually... I have created under the Office of the President a Task Force El Niño. There already exists one pero babaguhin natin ang structure because I think this is a more serious, and a more extensive effort because we really have to get everybody involved to be able to prepare, to make sure we can minimize, alleviate, and adapt to climate change,'' Marcos said. 

The El Niño phenomenon is characterized by the abnormal warming of sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean and below-normal rainfall.

The task force will be led by the Department of the Interior and Local Government, with the Office of Civil Defense as its co-head. —LDF, GMA Integrated News