THE Iloilo City Government will donate a portion of its property to the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) for the latter’s depot and Regional Evacuation Center (REC).
Mayor Jerry Treñas met with Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana in a recent forum, where the former made available to OCD the 5,000 square meters lot in Barangay Tacas in Jaro district.
“We discussed the need to fast-track the construction of evacuation center. If there’s available fund, it will start by end of the year or early next year. We have to prepare for disasters,” Treñas said.
REC establishment hopes to stop the practice of using school buildings as temporary shelters for disaster-affected families which displaces children and disrupts their schooling.
Lorenzana, who also chairs the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), was in Iloilo City to turn over the newly constructed REC in Barangay Gines, Zarraga, Iloilo.
REC houses facilities such as infirmaries and pharmacies; toilets and bathrooms for males, females and persons with disability; laundry and drying facilities with water tanks; generator rooms and pump rooms, a garbage disposal building; storage rooms that can be converted into child learning spaces; and a Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council Office.
REC is in accordance with Republic Act 10121, or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010, which aims to strengthen the country’s disaster risk reduction and management system. (PR)