CABANATUAN CITY – Summer has just started, but the provincial disaster risk reduction and management council, citing uncertainty in climate change, has laid down its preparedness program which include earmarking over P28 million in quick respond fund Thursday.
The council, presided by Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Asst. Regional Director Abraham Pascua as co-chair, approved its P93, 971,301 local risk reduction and management fund investment plan which provides, among others, the P28,191,390.30 allocation of stand-by fund for relief and recovery programs for rapid normalization of communities or “areas stricken by disasters, calamities, epidemic, or complex emergencies.”
Pascua said the early preparation was necessitated by the fact that climate change has made weather “extremely unpredictable that we would not know when the calamity would occur.” Under the program, the council will procure early warning systems, disaster preparedness equipment and other equipage, medical supplies and relief goods.
“We will also invest on trainings and seminars of relief and rescue teams through simulation exercises and drills at various levels,” Pascua who also is the DILG provincial director for Nueva Ecija said.
Supt. Crizaldo Nieves, provincial police director, said the PDRRMC will have to identify rescue and relief personnel that can be dispatched immediately from their safe places to calamity areas. “We should learn from the previous operations that rescuers should be free from worries on their own families.
They cannot be effective in helping others when their minds are preoccupied in thinking of safety of their own families,” Nieves stressed. Thus, there shall be a province-wide identification and establishment of disaster preparedness/response teams of at least 15 “able-bodied persons” per local government unit with permanent employment status.
The PDRRMC also resolved to take advantage of the dry season in rehabilitating fl ood-mitigating infrastructure such
as the Sta. Monica Dike Phase II in Aliaga town which costs P21,924,508.08 and Luyos-Buliran Overflow Bridge in San Antonio, Nueva Ecija costing P13,360,000.
At least five gymnasiums, described as multi-purpose facilities, shall be constructed soon to serve as evacuation centers during calamities. The modifi ed gyms, with a total cost of P17,695, 702.62 will have toilets for men and women, kitchen, laundry area and facility for “proper disposal of human excrement.”
There will also be water pumps in each facility. Among the areas already identifi ed to host such gyms were Barangays Padolina and Pias in Gen. Tinio; San Roque and Tambo North Elementary School in San Leonardo; Gabaldon Integrated School in Barangay Gabaldon, Science City of Munoz; Barangay Casongsong, Guimba; and Cama Juan, San Antonio.
