Cebu mayor asks for crisis center to prevent panic

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

CEBU CITY -- A command center equipped with a reliable communication and warning system and surveillance cameras are just some of the Cebu City Government’s needs in responding to disasters.

Mayor Michael Rama said he will include these items in the list of needed equipment that he will submit to President Benigno Aquino III, following last Monday’s magnitude-6.9 earthquake.

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Rama talked to President Aquino last Monday night and informed him of the effects of the earthquake that struck Cebu and Negros Oriental at 11:49 a.m. last Monday.

The official death toll hit 22 Tuesday, with 71 still missing, according to the national disaster risk reduction council.

At least 1,026 aftershocks were recorded as of 6 p.m. Tuesday, about 31 hours after the quake.

Last Monday’s panic highlighted the need to establish a tsunami early warning system in Cebu City.

Antonio Balang Jr., disaster risk reduction advocacy officer of the Fellowship for Organizing Endeavors Inc. (Forge), said Cebu City should create a tsunami early warning system, especially with the discovery of a blind fault near Tayasan in Negros Oriental.

Balang said he will propose the creation of this system in the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

Mayor Rama received a call Tuesday morning from Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. to discuss updates on his conversation with the President.

Rama said he was asked to make a list of the City’s needs in responding to disasters.

He said the priority is a command center, where needs for disaster response will be addressed and where instructions will be given. This way, the barangay officials and the public will know where to go, where to ask for help, and what to do when a disaster strikes.

A command center is also crucial in correcting the false information disseminated to the public, as what happened last Monday when misinformation on a tsunami triggered panic among some of the city’s residents.

Rama also plans to buy communication equipment, including a paging system that the City can use to quickly inform the public of advisories during an emergency.

Budget cut

The command center is among the items that the Cebu City Council did not approve when it passed the P5.2-billion operating budget for 2012.

Representative Tomas Osmeña (Cebu City, south district) was quick to point out, though, that instead of griping about the budget cut, Rama should instead manage the budget that he has.

Management, not money, is the problem, the congressman said.

In a press conference Tuesday, Osmeña said he was the first to propose a command center, which he put up at the Department of Public Services office when Typhoon Ruping hit Cebu in 1990.

The command center, he said, is a one-stop shop where communication takes place and where food, vehicles and other equipment are available for emergency rescue.

A command center doesn’t require huge funding, said Osmeña. He recalled that during his term as mayor, the City bought the building beside the Mambaling flyover, where the LDRRMO holds office, precisely so it can serve as a command center.

While he admitted that he will be biased if he had to assess how Rama managed the City during Monday’s crisis, Osmeña said the major problem of Rama’s administration is “mismanagement.”

Private help

For his part, Rama said Osmeña does not have anything positive to say and is only good in criticizing his administration, even when the congressman wasn’t aware what he was doing as mayor after the earthquake.

In his news conference Tuesday, the mayor said that judging from the way the public reacted to the tsunami scare, he saw a need to educate the people about tsunami alert levels, so they would understand the warnings.

He has instructed the Office of the Building Official (OBO) and the Department of Engineering and Public Works (DEPW) to give him a complete and verified report on the damages on buildings in the city after the earthquake.

Acting Building Official Josefa Ylanan said, however, that they don’t have the manpower to inspect all the buildings, so she appealed to business owners to commission private civil and structural engineers to inspect their structures.

Engineer Ylanan said private engineers can also issue a certification that the buildings are safe and that the earthquake did not compromise the structural integrity of the buildings.

“We are just appealing to them because it is very important at this point that their buildings will be declared safe and sound, to assure the occupants and the visitors that their structures are stable,” she said.

Safe

Ylanan already declared the City Hall executive and legislative buildings, the Cebu City Condominium and the Cebu City Medical Center buildings as safe and sound, despite the surface cracks that were found on the structures after the earthquake.

The OBO also found cracks on the Gotiaoco building along M.C. Briones St., but Ylanan said the structure has long been declared as dangerous.

The Market Operations Division (MOD), which holds office there, has been advised to vacate the building last September yet.

Meanwhile, the Cebu City Schools Division inspected some of the public school buildings on Tuesday.

City Schools Division Superintendent Rhea Mar Angtud said three teams were tasked to conduct the inspection, particularly in the mountain barangays where some school buildings were found to be defective even before the earthquake struck.

Angtud expects the teams that include structural engineers to submit their findings and recommendations today, Wednesday.

She disclosed that in the initial report she received Tuesday, surface cracks were found on the walls and floors of some school buildings.

Eye-opener

According to the initial report from the Cebu City Local Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (LDRRMO), inspection teams found cracks in the school buildings in Barangays Buhisan, Toong and Apas.

Surface cracks were also found in Toong Barangay Hall, the Bureau of Internal Revenue building in Banilad and on some parts of the University of San Jose-Recoletos–Basak Campus.

Interviewed separately, Balang of Forge said the panic, triggered by what he described as “natural terrorism”, would have been avoided if there was a warning system that disseminated “proper information.”

Meanwhile, an education official said last Monday’s earthquake was an eye-opener for schools to take earthquake drills seriously.

Victor Yntig, physical facilities coordinator of the Department of Education (DepEd) in Central Visayas, said that while all schools submit reports on their quarterly earthquake drills, not all of them may be serious in conducting the drills.

“Sa drills magkinataw-anay lang, unya gahapon nag-hinilakay (Pupils laugh during drills, but many cried yesterday (Monday),” he said.

Inspections

DepEd-Central Visayas suspended classes in the region Tuesday to have school structures inspected.

In Mandaue City, the city engineer’s office, DepEd officials and city social welfare officers also inspected school buildings.

Large cracks were found on the wall of a school building in Umapad Elementary School and another in Opao Elementary School. Officials recommended that the classrooms be abandoned until repairs are made.

In Lapu-Lapu City, Mayor Paz Radaza ordered the city’s disaster risk reduction and management council to conduct training and an awareness campaign down to the barangays.

The Philvolcs, though, considers the city a low-risk area for tsunami, said Jonji Gonzales, Lapu-Lapu City consultant. Mayor Radaza, he said, also ordered a simulation study on tsunami risks.

A magnitude 6.9 earthquake, the strongest recorded in Central Visayas in 90 years, struck Tayasan in Negros Oriental at 11:49 a.m. last Monday.

Alert

Balang clarified that last Monday’s tsunami alert was not a false alarm, saying the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) followed standard operating procedures when they issued tsunami alert level 2 in Cebu and Negros.

The public’s interpretation of the tsunami alert, he said, was the problem.

“There is also a need to popularize the alert system,” added Balang, who spoke during a forum on schools’ disaster preparedness organized by the Coalition for Better Education.

Philvolcs issued tsunami alert level 2 at 12:05 p.m. last Monday but cancelled it two hours later.

The alert level means that the public should be on alert for unusual waves. Only when tsunami alert level 3 is issued is the public advised to evacuate.

In Mandaue City, the inspecting committee, headed by Councilor Demetrio Cortes Jr., found deep cracks on the columns of a three-classroom building in Umapad Elementary School and in the beam of a two-storey building in Opao Elementary School.

Cortes said he will wait for the final recommendation of the engineering office before recommending an appropriation from the Special Education Fund for the repair of these structures. (With Elly T. Bolonos/Sun.Star Cebu)