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MORAKOT: THE AFTERMATH: Former fire director proposes Cabinet emergency center

Former National Fire Administration (NFA) director-general Chao Kang (趙鋼) yesterday said the government should abolish the Central Emergency Operation Center (CEOC) and create a standing Cabinet-level institution to coordinate damage prevention and emergency preparedness.

Chao made the remarks as he commented on President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) recent proposal to establish an agency under the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) to handle disaster-related tasks.

“A disaster management agency won’t work if it is not elevated to Cabinet-level status,” Chao said at a legislative hearing on disaster relief work hosted by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Cheng Li-wen (鄭麗文) yesterday.

SAME OLD STORY

Chao said it would be just the same old story if a disaster management agency were established under the MOI, and that it wouldn’t make any changes to the existing rescue system, which is mainly managed by the National Fire Agency (NFA) — also under the MOI.

Under the current disaster response system governed by the Disaster Prevention and Protection Act (災害防救法), an ad hoc CEOC is to be activated when an emergency occurs, with the NFA in charge of its operations and senior civil servants from different Cabinet-level agencies taking turns serving the center during the period.

The Act states that the CEOC is to be overseen by the chairman of the Executive Yuan’s National Disaster Prevention and Protection Commission. Currently, the duty falls on Vice Premier Paul Chiu’s (邱正雄) shoulders.

PADDING

“Given the make-up of the CEOC, it’s impossible that it will run well. Its members won’t concentrate on disaster-related tasks, which they consider as adjunct work,” Chao said.

Chien Shien-wen (簡賢文), an associate professor at Central Police University’s Fire Science Department, agreed with Chao, saying that it was not appropriate for the ad hoc agency to serve as a facility for civil servants to pad their resumes with experience at disaster prevention and relief.

REFUGEES

Liu Chung-ming (柳中明), the head of National Taiwan University’s Global Change Research Center, said the damage caused by Typhoon Morakot had created the first instance of “climate refugees” in the country, and urged the government to quickly classify other areas that are under threat.

Liao Pen-chuan (廖本全), an associate professor at National Taipei University’s Department of Real Estate and Building Environment, called on the government to propose a plan to restore deforested and overdeveloped national land.

“Typhoon Morakot tells us that disasters will occur again and again, not only in southern Taiwan, but elsewhere. The whole country is immersed in crisis,” Liao said.
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