Metropolitan Region Governor Claudio Orrego and regional presidential delegate Germán Codina disagreed this Wednesday in Estación Central over funding for the National Disaster Prevention and Response Service (Senapred) in the 2027 Budget, according to La Tercera. Both were accompanying Mayor Felipe Muñoz the day after the tornado that struck the municipality with winds of up to 137 kilometers per hour.
The tornado coincided with Tuesday's heavy rain and hailstorm. The storm caused several floods and prompted a red alert declaration in the region.
Orrego said the government is reducing funding allocated to Senapred in the budget bill. "That is quite contradictory," he said. In his view, the executive branch cannot cut funding for the agency while declaring that emergencies are a priority.
The governor, a former member of the Christian Democratic Party (DC), also called for a review of urban planning. He mentioned an outstanding task for the Ministry of Housing in land-use planning and criticized construction in ravines without proper precautions. He also proposed updating the risk map for the entire foothill area, not just Las Condes.
As examples of investment, Orrego cited the basins built by the Ministry of Public Works in Peñalolén to contain mudslides and the Víctor Jara floodable park, which regulates flooding along the Zanjón de la Aguada.
Along those lines, he announced that the Regional Government (GORE) is willing to fund radars so that the Chilean Meteorological Directorate can anticipate events like Tuesday's. He said they would contact the agency to see whether the equipment is available and purchase it.
Codina responded that the country has many financial needs, beyond emergencies. He maintained that the cuts proposed by the Ministry of Finance "are not arbitrary" and reflect a fiscal deficit that, according to him, no one had responsibly warned about for years.
On the radars, the delegate proposed another approach. At Tuesday's regional Disaster Risk Management Committee (Cogrid) meeting, he proposed buying them using the 2% authorized by the emergency decree concerning the El Niño current, signed by the President of the Republic.
Codina argued that emergency decrees provide flexibility to speed up purchases. He also offered indirect criticism: he recalled that the country has been discussing radars for decades and that some reelected officials with budgets had previously failed to resolve the issue. He clarified that the budget debate falls outside the Presidential Delegation's remit.
The delegate set a deadline: for the region to face next winter with the radars installed. He said he also hoped other regional governments would contribute investment.
