BEFORE the onset of the rainy season, the Cordillera Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CDRRMC) kicks off with its caravan in the region to review local disaster risk reduction and management plans.
CDRRMC chair and Office of Civil Defense (OCD) director Albert Mogol said the caravan kicked off in Benguet province and to be followed by Mt. Province and Abra.
“The purpose of the caravan is to know the preparedness of every province before the onset of rainy season for us to identify the gaps and how the national government can help the local government unit (LGU). If we are able to determine the gaps and disseminate policies, there will be a synergy between the LGU and National Government,” said Mogol.
After typhoon Ompong, Mogol added collaboration of agencies are very important including continuous partnership of advancement and technology to mitigate risk.
“In addressing disaster reduction, there are two add-ons: the consideration of gender sensitivity and consideration to the rights of the people,” he said.
The 2019 Caravan is also a joint meeting of Provincial DRRM and Regional DRRM Council.
On May 23, the Benguet Provincial DRRM Council met led by Provincial Administrator lawyer Noel Ngolob and Provincial DRRM officer Rose Marie Mellecio and the Local DRRM represented by the different Municipal DRRM officers.
Mogol said there is good plan, however, conveyed the need to improve the line of communication. In the meeting, he asked to have a system for faster communication between the municipalities and the province in order to have faster response for disaster.
“Information dissemination is very important because it is a need of the decision makers. Those are the things that we need to prepare, the plan itself is complete including the tasking, but then in the implementation, if we could rehearse our plan,” Mogol added.
The OCD director said the rehearsal is important to see the communication of the Provincial DRRM with the other Local DRRM offices.
Cordillera region was among the affected by the typhoon Ompong last year with 116 casualties and 81 injured. Majority of the casualties were in the municipality of Itogon in Benguet buried in a landslide.