THE Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC) is preparing to train local government units (LGUs) in identifying risk areas in their communities and coming up with their own contingency plans.
CDRRMC Chairman and Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) Regional Director Ruben Carandang said the conduct of quarterly earthquake drills will be part of the community- based disaster training to capacitate the barangay level.
“We will look into how they have their contingency plans and assist them on how to perform it better. Noong pumunta po ako sa Cordillera, ang concept natin bottoms up, i-capacitate natin iyong barangay going to municipal, provincial before regional. Hindi dapat tinitingnan ang regional, dapat ang action magmumulala sa lowest disaster management body which is the barangay (When I went to Cordillera, our concept was bottoms up. We should capacitate the barangay going to municipal, provincial before regional. The action should come from the lowest disaster management body which is the barangay),” Carandang said.
“From the quarterly earthquake drill, we are reviewing the local disaster contingency plans,” he added.
National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Executive Director Ricardo Jalad stated the community-first responders training is now on its fourth course which started in 2018 developed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Health (DOH), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the OCD.
LGUs and regional government agencies will be trained in view of the OCD’s role to orchestrate different agencies.
“Alam na nila kung ano ang gagawin nila kapag darating na iyong bagyo, dapat magkakaroon ng protocol doon, iyon ang isang effort to capacitate the LGU para sila ang magtuturo sa community (They already know what to do in when there’s typhoon, there should be a protocol to that. That’s one of the effort to capacitate the LGU so they could teach the community),” Jalad added.
Jalad added the review of Disaster Risk Reduction Management Plan remains a work in progress as they are also working with the DILG.
On Thursday, October 18, Jalad convened a meeting at the OCD-Cordillera in Baguio City with the regional offices which provided updates on the response to the damage wrought by Typhoon Ompong and initial plan for the conduct of post disaster needs assessment that will solve the crafting of the rehabilitation and recovery plan of Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).
Part of the discussion included rehabilitation and recovery plan on agriculture, roads and bridges and other sectors. Itogon may also make its rehabilitation and recovery plan, adds Jalad.
Jalad shared part of the concerns of barangay captains in Itogon is the plight of small-scale miners that is being addressed by Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) with the possible opening of Minahang Bayan.