By Jhun Gatmaitan, Sunstar Davao

DAVAO CITY -- The establishment of a People's Survival Fund as provided in House Bill (HB) No. 3528 was among the actions drummed up in the climate change conference at the Marco Polo Hotel in Davao City on Saturday.

HB 3528 seeks to establish a long-term, predictable fund dedicated to adaptation measures of local governments and communities to climate change.

The bill also seeks to amend Republic Act 9729 or the Climate Change Act of 2009, which created the Climate Change Commission (CCC).

The main task and purpose of CCC is to direct the country in responding to the mounting difficulty and occurrence of calamities due to global warming. The CCC acts as a project implementing body which exercises coordinative, capacity-building and consultative leadership roles.

The CC requires a climate change plan for all local government units, which includes measures to reduce the risk of disasters and adaptation measures to climate change.

"The problem is kung meron kang plano pero wala kang resources, yung adaptation measures na tinatawag nila, parang drawing na lang sa papel (Plans are nothing but drawing on paper if you do not have the resources for adaptation measures). In people's survival fund (PSF), the said fund will be given to LGU’s directly even if there is no calamity that happened in the area," said Catherine P. Maceda, adviser of the Senate Committee on Climate Change.

The PSF is different from a calamity fund as this primarily focuses on adaptation of the LGU's and this adaptation can be enforced.

Meanwhile, Senator Leoren Legarda chairman on committee on climate change told the congress to speed up the approval of the bill. The bill is now in the committee level at the House of Congress. A huge amount is perceived or needed upon the approval and implementation of the HB 3528 although this has not yet been calculated.

It was Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III who sought the prioritization of HB 3528 after floodwaters battered provinces and towns in the country at the start of the year.