http://www.pia.gov.ph/news/index.php?article=2621373266013

The Climate Change Commission (CCC) will implement the Project ReBUILD (Resilience Capacity Building for Cities and Municipalities to Reduce Disaster Risk from Climate Change and Natural Hazards) here to increase capacities of key local actors in the management of disaster risks and adaptation to climate change.

ReBuild aims to improve the governance framework for the Cagayan River basin, Secretary Mary Ann Lucille Sering said. The project began in October 2012 and will end on June 2015,

Sering said the $1.2-million project was funded by the Government of New Zealand through the New Zealand Aid Program. It is administered by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) represented by Toshihiro Tanaka.

A memorandum of agreement was signed by New Zealand Ambassador H.E. Rueben Levermore, UNDP representative Toshihiro Tanaka, Tuguegarao City Mayor Jefferson Soriano and Edna Junio of the provincial government.

The commission has targeted the provinces under the Cagayan River basin project to save future developmental projects from destruction as an effect of the climate change phenomenon, Sering said.

"Many provinces under the Cagayan River basin are prone to climate-induced hazards such as landslides and floods that cause substantial losses in lives and properties every year," she said citing report from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) that region 02 incurred the highest cost of damage among five regions in the country with P945.5 million in the past years.

Meanwhile, Mayor Soriano said he is privileged to be a recipient of Project ReBUILD and assured the commission that it will be his priority to come up with an action plan to mitigate climate change in the first 100 days of his maiden administration.

Soriano plans to have an environment summit this year to sustain a clean Tuguegarao City and to solve problem on waste disposal.(GVB-PIA 2, Cagayan)