New law imposes price control during calamity

President Gloria Arroyo has signed a law that will make mandatory the imposition of price ceiling on prime commodities during a state of calamity and will require state lending institutions to extend interest-free loans to citizens who are displaced by the calamity.

Republic Act No. 10121, signed on May 27, also made disaster risk education a mandatory component of school curriculum for high school and college students.

The new law is expected to better equip the country in dealing with natural disasters, such as killer typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng that damaged at least P200 billion in infrastructure and agricultural outputs, among others.

RA No. 10121 also renamed the National Disaster Coordinating Council into the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Under the new law, otherwise known as the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010, the secretary of defense shall serve as chairperson of the council.

The council shall have four vice-chairmen, namely the Interior chief for disaster preparedness; the Social Welfare chief for disaster response; the Science and Technology chief for disaster prevention and mitigation; and the National Economic and Development Authority director general for disaster rehabilitation and recovery.

Members of the council include the administrator of the Office of Civil Defense; the secretaries of health, environment, agriculture, education, energy, finance, trade, transportation, budget, public works, foreign affairs, justice, labor, tourism, and peace process; the Executive Secretary and Press Secretary; and the Armed Forces chief of staff and National Police director general, among others.

A salient point of the law is the integration of disaster risk education into the curriculum at the secondary and tertiary levels, including the National Service Training Program, in public and private schools, including non-formal, technical-vocational, indigenous learning, and out-of-school youth courses.

Section 17 of the new law also states that once a state of calamity is declared, the government shall immediately impose a price ceiling on basic and prime commodities.

The Local Price Coordination Council shall also prevent and control overpricing, profiteering, and hoarding of prime commodities, medicines, and petroleum products. –Joyce Pangco Pañares, Manila Standard Today