THE Cagayan de Oro City Government and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG)-Northern Mindanao inaugurated Tuesday, December 13, a disaster-resilient evacuation center in Indahag village.
Less than five days before the city remembers the wrath of typhoon Sendong, Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Oscar Moreno turned over the P10-million worth evacuation center to the village officials with the message of disaster awareness.
“The lessons of Sendong should be very clear in the minds of everyone, usa na niana gipapuy-an ang no build zones (There are settlers in no build zones), ika-duha, walay (Second, no) disaster risk reduction and management team and ang (the) level of awareness sa (in) measures during disasters, all these things we have already been addressing for the past several years since we sat as mayor of the city,” Moreno said.
The two-storey building is mounted in a one-hectare area property donated by Indahag village, with seven rooms, nine comfort rooms, and a roof deck that is estimated to accommodate more or less 500 individuals during evacuations.
The evacuation is intended to cover affected victims from the villages of Macasandig and Nazareth.
The building is funded by the DILG through its Bottom-Up Budgeting, which is worth P7.2 million while the city for its part, gave P2.8 million for the project.
DILG-Northern Mindanao director Arnel Agabe said the site is identified by the City Poverty Reduction Team, which has also been assisting in realizing the priority projects.
Architect Jemma Sarol-Semaña, former national vice president of Mindanao in the Association of Architects in the Philippines, said Indahag is a "very strategic location" for an evacuation center.
“Naay uban gusto sa lain places, pero (Some want it in other places, but) they’re either landslide-prone or duol sa (near the) coastal areas and Indahag is the best choice, aside from Pagatpat because these are upland areas,” she said.
“This is really intended sa mga magkadaghan na ang tao (if there will be more people) because as we can see, ang comfort rooms ani niya is not the typical nga enclosed (the comfort rooms are not the typical enclosed), our CR here is open-type kay karon dili na advisable and closed (because right now it's not advisable to have it closed),” she added.
Working on pro-bono, Architect Marilyn Neri, president of the architects association in Cagayan de Oro, said they have studied the area with the geo-hazard map to identify if the area is vulnerable to various hazards.
“This is also strategic for the reason that upland naman ang development karon sa siyudad so sakto lang na naa kini siya diri (the city's development is upland so it's good to have it here),” Neri said.
The mayor said the evacuation center could also be used as training centers for the skills development programs while it is not used for evacuation purposes.
Moreno said this is the second evacuation center installed in the city, the first is in Pagatpat village.