[OPINION] From Super El Niño to the budget: What is the plan?

When mistakes have been made, we’re supposed to learn from them. When it comes to transparency, however, many in the Bongbong Marcos administration seem to instead double down on avoiding transparency at a time when it is needed the most. Case in point: the lack of a publicly accessible, updated Strategic El Niño Action Plan. Where is the plan? Hundreds of local government units have already declared a state of calamity. Agriculture and fisheries are already being affected. Our water security is at serious risk. Our health systems are already strained. And the peak of this Super El Niño has not even arrived yet. Yes, it is understandable that this master plan needs to be flexible enough that some of its provisions could be reevaluated and even updated to improve responses to this pending crisis.

Obviously, it also makes sense to have a division of labor across national agencies that would focus on responding to their covered sectors (i. e. , agriculture, education, water, etc. ). Several agencies have already reported their strategies to deal with these impacts. For example, the Department of Agriculture proposed its P61. 99-billion spending package for protecting food production and livelihoods. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is monitoring the water situation across the country. Anticipatory action frameworks are being built to trigger responses before the peak. But the lack of a publicly available and readily accessible overall Strategic El Niño Action Plan limits effective coordination among sectors and stakeholders in addressing these challenges. It prevents clear, efficient tracking of the quantity and effectiveness of expenditures, hindering the capacity to hold duty-bearers accountable. Why should citizens be forced to find the pieces of the…