Advancing responsive governance through legislation amid the abnormalities of nature has prompted Kag. Augustinus Gonzaga to create in the Sanguniang Panlungsod (SP) a climate change committee.

He will formally propose it as a special committee that “legislates the forecasts and ordains bases for proactive plans and programs.”

The committee will lead in taking on policy measures answering to, for example, the question of what will Tagbilaran City do with its sinkholes and flooding which may affect urban planning, Gonzaga said.

The lawmaker commended the recent program of the city’s executive branch to be on the right track, but action can be more reinforced if there is a legislative parallel.

Gonzaga cited climate change adaptation as a new, separate pillar of governance that is trending worldwide in the face of the growing threats of the global climate change, also known as the “new normal.”

He would want the climate change committee distinct and separate from the standing environment and natural resource committee.

The “necessity and practicality” of creating  the climate change committee in the sanggunians or local legislatures were highlighted at the First Asian Councils Forum attended by Gonzaga in Metro Manila last December.

Gonzaga met at the forum, which had many foreign delegates, former Councilor Lucille Lagunay, a lecturer having been with the Philippine Councilors’ League (PCL) advocacy group.

They were joined by Councilor Jonas Cacho.

The climate change committee can provide policy reasons for action planning, which final framework will be submitted to the national Climate Change Commission (CCC), Gonzaga said.

The CCC has P2 billion which the city can tap to assist in finding remedies to the underground geological defects like the sinkholes discovered after the unforgiving earthquake in 2013.

The councilor said the committee can connect with the experts and research institutions for studies and inputs which are critical and necessary to making policies by proactive legislation.

Also a global trend in governance, allocating for climate change mitigation and adaptation activities has been required in the annual local budgeting. (Ven rebo Arigo)