MMDA creates public safety office

MANILA, Philippines — The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has created an interim office that will oversee the agency’s disaster and emergency response efforts.

The Metropolitan Public Safety Office (MPSO) will integrate all MMDA units that are undertaking similar functions or tasks related to disaster and emergency preparedness and response.

It will also handle the mobilization of resources and the implementation of contingency plans for rehabilitation and relief operations and coordination with national agencies.

MMDA chairman Danilo Lim said the new office will conform to the agency’s “mandates of public safety,” which includes formulating and implementing programs, policies and procedures for public safety, “especially preparedness for preventive or rescue operation during times of calamities and disasters, such as conflagrations, earthquake, flood and tidal waves.”

The new office will have the following units:

Public Safety Division
Road Emergency Group
Metro Manila Emergency Volunteer Corps
Metro Manila Crisis Monitoring and Management Center
Rescue Battalion Headquarters and Disaster Preparedness Training Center

It will be headed by the MMDA’s concurrent chief of staff and focal person for the Disaster Risk Reduction Management, Michael Salalima.

“It will allow the offices to function mainly on their tasks more effectively and efficiently by having unique and clear tasks, functions and objectives of their own, eroding the confusion which office is responsible to work on a certain task,” Lim said in a statement.

The office will also lead the establishment of sectionalized disaster and emergency response units, particularly the Central, North, South, East, and West sectors.

It is also the office’s duty to “provide timely information regarding monitored disasters, hazards, and emergencies” to concerned officials, responders and stakeholders.

The office will also promote and implement disaster preparedness trainings at the community level to increase their level of awareness and equip them with the needed skills and capability to cope with threats and impacts of disasters.

During road emergencies, the office is also mandated to respond to reported or monitored disasters, ensure the smooth flow of traffic along the major roads in Metro Manila by removing all roadblocks and providing efficient response to roadside emergencies. /ee