THE Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) is set to become a separate department under a proposed ordinance that was passed on first reading by the Provincial Board (PB) during its regular session on Monday, July 21, 2025.
PDRRMO Head Dennis Francis Pastor said the change, pushed by Gov. Pamela Baricuatro, will allow the office to expand its current three-person staff and improve its operational capacity and mobility for better disaster response.
The proposed ordinance, authored by Board Member Celestino Martinez III, aims to elevate the PDRRMO into a separate, fully operational department; instead of its current status as an attached division of the Office of the Governor that is operating with a lean staff.
Pastor said the move is a critical step for Cebu as this will allow the PDRRMO to build its own capacity, significantly increasing its manpower and improving crucial assets for better mobility.
Pastor said an ideal workforce for the PDRRMO would consist of at least three teams, each with seven members, equipped with the right technology and mobility for effective disaster response.
He said the PDRRMO plans to procure essential search and rescue protective gear within the latter half of the year.
“High time”
In a separate interview, Martinez said he once authored an ordinance at the time of then-Gov. Hilario Davide III that would make the PDRRMO a separate department; but the office was reverted to a division.
With recent disasters Cebu had experienced such as super typhoon Odette and other weather disturbances, Martinez said it is “high time” for the PDRRMO to be made into a separate department again.
“If it’s a department, you can add in more personnel, people with expertise who can attend to the different kinds of disasters and problems in the province,” Martinez said.
In a previous SunStar Cebu report, Pastor was quoted as saying that the PDRRMO had been in a “bad state” in the past six years under the administration of former governor Gwendolyn Garcia.
Pastor, a retired colonel, said the disaster office would now be significantly enhanced with additional personnel and equipment under Baricuatro’s administration.
This will include the procurement of two air and two sea ambulances, using funds from the Provincial Health Office. / JPS