THE Bacolod City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) bagged the Gawad Kalasag Award for Best Highly Urbanized City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council in Western Visayas.
Executive Assistant Jose Maria Vargas, cluster head on CDRRMO, said Monday, July 30, they received the plaque and P50,000 in cash during the 20th Gawad Kalasag Search for Excellence in Disaster Risk Reduction and Management and Humanitarian Assistance in rites held in Iloilo City Convention Center.
The awarding ceremony was led by Assistant Secretary Nicanor Faeldon of Office of Civil Defense (OCD).
Kalasag stands for “Kalamidad at Sakuna Labanan, Sariling Galing ang Kaligtasan.
Vargas said the Kalasag Award is only given to the local government units with exemplary performance on disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) in Western Visayas.
He said the city is also a finalist for national DRRM award and within this year, the national evaluating team will arrive here.
He added that Iloilo was not qualified because they failed to comply with the requirements.
In years 2009, 2012, 2015, and 2017 Bacolod also received the regional Kalasag Awards for the highly urbanized city category.
In 2012 and 2015, Bacolod was also included in the top three finalists in national Kalasag Awards for highly urbanized city category.
Dondon Parandas, officer-in-charge of DRRMO, said they will use the P50,000 in cash for the preparedness program of the city.
He said they managed to comply the disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and rehabilitation to address the identified problems in Bacolod.
“We are thankful to all the volunteer groups and other civil society organizations for helping us,” he added.