Alagang Angara

To foster a culture of preparedness among Filipinos, reelectionist Senator Sonny Angara renewed his call to make disaster risk education mandatory in the curriculum of primary schools to improve the young learners’ understanding of preparedness and response, as well as hone their readiness in dealing with natural calamities.

“Since we live in a country where earthquakes and typhoons are very common, it is imperative that every Filipino is equipped with the basic understanding and knowledge of disaster preparedness and response,” Angara said.

Reelectionist Senator Sonny Angara wants local government units (LGUs) to spend their local disaster funds wisely by prioritizing disaster planning and risk management, saying such move is more proactive and cost-effective in terms of disaster response.

“It is always better to be prepared than hope for the best and deal with the consequences after disaster strikes,” said Angara, chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Government. “LGUs should not hesitate to spend their calamity funds for disaster preparedness.”

Reelectionist Senator Sonny Angara said the country needs a strong and empowered institution capable of responding to the new normal of natural disasters and climate change, as he pushed for the immediate passage of a bill creating the Department of Disaster Resilience after a magnitude 6.1 earthquake jolted parts of Luzon that killed at least eight people and injured others, and damaged critical infrastructures.

Reelectionist Senator Sonny Angara urged Filipinos to make a conscious effort to live a more environmentally friendly lifestyle as the Philippines joins the rest of the world in celebrating Earth Day on April 22.

(file photo: Senator Sonny Angara with kababayans in Saipan)

Reelectionist Senator Sonny Angara is looking forward to having more social welfare attachés (SWAs) in Philippine embassies and consulates, especially in countries with high concentration of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), once the bill seeking to institutionalize their deployment abroad is signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte.

Reelectionist Senator Sonny Angara said education is a powerful tool to make the youth enablers of transformation and turn the country into an economic powerhouse where jobs abound and social services are accessible to all.

Data from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as of 2018 showed that the Philippines has the third youngest people among the 700 million youth in the Asia Pacific region, of which about 30 percent are below 15 years old. The median age in the country is 26.

Reelectionist Senator Sonny Angara said the agriculture sector should look for creative ways to engage the youth in farming to ensure that there would be enough farmers to feed the country’s ever-growing population.

“Youth engagement in agriculture is vital to ensuring that the Philippines will not have a scarcity of future food producers,” said Angara, who is scheduled today to campaign in Cagayan, one of the country’s top rice and corn producing provinces. 

Reelectionist Senator Sonny Angara said the government should pay serious attention to developing agriculture and infrastructure in the provinces if it wants to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, which victims are mostly the rural poor.

The lawmaker from Aurora noted that majority of poor and undernourished people live in rural areas, where small-scale farming forms the backbone of their local economy.

Reelectionist Senator Sonny Angara said the manufacturing industry needs a serious makeover if the country wants to recreate “Made in the Philippines” and attract global attention for fresh investments and market. 

Increasing the social pension of indigent senior citizens will be a top priority of Senator Sonny Angara if he is reelected to Senate for another six-year term.

Angara, one of the authors of Republic Act 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010, said the social pension provided for under the law must be doubled from the current P500 to P1,000 per month, and its coverage should be expanded to include those without any form of pension.