GK 2017 CHAMPION. Then Vice Gov. Dennis ‘Delta’ Pineda poses with Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and OCD administrator Ricardo Jalad after receiving the Best Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management and Humanitarian Assistance award and P500,0000 cheque. With them are Pampanga government chiefs of offices and other officials. File photo courtesy of Jun Jaso/Pampanga PIO
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – National champion in 2017, runner–up in 2016 notwithstanding, the Pampanga Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council has decided to temporarily stop participating in the Gawad Kalasag (GK) competition of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) starting this year.
Gawad Kalasag for “Kalamidad at Sakuna Labanan, Sariling Galing ang Kaligtasan” is an annual recognition awarded to local government units that excelled in disaster risk management and response.
The decision not to participate was announced by Gov. Dennis “Delta” Pineda at the first PDRRMC quarterly meeting on Wednesday at the Capitol here.
This, even as Pineda, the PDRRMC chair, recommended to OCD administrator and Defense Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad to conduct a review of the GK standards and measurement methods and how these were applied in the recent selection of top three PDRRMCs.
“I understand that the GK is a recognition of excellent practitioners of disaster risk reduction. The GK should continue to be committed to its objective. With due respect, local governments should be truthfully assessed of their disaster risk reduction capabilities so that their constituents and communities are really safe,” the governor explained.
Pineda sought clarifications why Pampanga did not land in the top three slots in the 2018 edition of the award when it in fact topped the 2017 and placed second in the 2016 national awards.
According to Pineda, his request for a revalidation of Pampanga’s scores was not addressed, which he conveyed in a letter to Jalad on Aug. 7, 2019.
In what came as a reply dated Oct. 8, 2019, Benito Salvador Jr., head of the 21st GK head secretariat, said “field validation is conducted for top three entries which garnered the percentile scoring of at least 80 during the desk evaluation.”
Noted Pineda: “Our people and partners have never been lacking in efforts to do best practices in all aspects of disaster risk reduction. Why we failed to make it in the top three is a big question mark to me. Did we not meet standards? What did we not comply with? Did we not follow protocols?”
Wanting and waiting for answers, Pineda instructed PDRRMC executive officer Angelina Blanco to follow protocols set by the OCD in carrying out quick reaction responses requested by local governments.
Gratitude
Meanwhile, expressions of gratitude from victims of the Taal Volcano eruptions have continued to be showered on Pineda for his “immediate and continuing response” to their needs.
It can be recalled that the governor personally led a 52-vehicle convoy of relief and rescue mission to the affected areas within 24 hours of the initial eruptionand set a command center at the Batangas SportsComplex where he directly supervised operations for a week.
Thereafter, Pampanga medical and relief teams with the governor returned to Batangas for follow–up operations.
Pineda has likewise earned the admiration of the whole nation when he opened Pampanga as quarantine areafor overseas Filipino workers repatriated from Covid-19 affected countries. This, at a time when a number of local government units went as far as issuing resolutions shunning the OFWs.
The Athletes’ Village in New Clark City was subsequently decided by the Department of Health as quarantine area.
