Vigilance on disasters urged

PRESIDENTIAL Communications Operations Office Secretary Sonny Coloma is appealing to all Benguet officials to be vigilant on risk areas this rainy season.  

Coloma said, “I have been informed that there are high risk areas in Benguet with human settlements.”

Coloma said a repeat of the tragedy that struck cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan should not happen in the province. “An unseasonal typhoon happened in a place where there were no storms with 5,000 people who died.”  

Illegal logging in the area caused the tragedy with continuous rains for twelve hours resulting to the swelling of rivers, Coloma said. 

In the past, non-government organizations and government agencies talked about the impact of climate change on disasters. 

Little Kibungan tragedy left the province leaving La Trinidad valley devastated.  

Little Kibungan is still a high risk area and the province and municipality has alerted barangay heads for possible landslides, especially during the rainy days. 

In 2009, over 100 families were rendered homeless by typhoon Pepeng.  

Coloma said Benguet leaders and citizens should meet with information center managers on the issue of high risk areas.  

On the previous reports of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), a P60 million geohazard mapping study of the Philippines identified landslide and flood prone areas in the country.  

The top landslide prone and flood prone provinces like Benguet, Mountain Province, Kalinga Apayao, Nueva Ecija, Nueva Vizcaya, identified by the DENR, are the same provinces that host big mining operations in the country.