Pampanga backs out of disaster response tilt as selection process questioned

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO –– An award for excellence in disaster response has come under question for the first time after Pampanga Governor Dennis Pineda announced that the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (PDRRMC) backed out of the Gawad Kalasag tilt.

Pineda, who chairs the PDRRMC, said the non-participation of Pampanga in the GK (Kalamidad at Sakuna Labanan, Sariling Galing ang Kaligtasan) was “temporary.”

He then urged Undersecretary Ricardo Jalad, administrator of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), to review the selection standards and process used in the 21st edition of the GK in 2018.

The OCD in Central Luzon had endorsed Pampanga in the national search for GK winners, an official said, clarifying that the selection was entirely done by a set of judges picked by the national office.

In a statement, Pineda said: “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 safe.”

Pineda said he wanted to know why Pampanga did not land in the top three spots when it landed first in the regional search in 2018 and it bagged the national championship in 2017 from being a second placer in 2016.

The PDRRMCs of Quirino and Mountain Province garnered the first and second place, respectively, in 2018. There was no third winner.

The governor said his request for a re-validation of Pampanga’s scores was denied.

Benito Salvador Jr., head of the 21st GK head secretariat, said the field validation was for top three entries, which garnered the percentile scoring of at least 80 during the desk evaluation.

“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?” Pineda asked.

“We are not after the prize money (P500,000). We are after the honor the award bestows on us,” he said in a phone interview.

PDRRMC executive officer Angelina Blanco said the governor instructed her to follow OCD protocols when giving quick response to local governments.

Mark Timbal, National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) spokesperson, said GK remains a “meticulously objective recognition tool” of the NDRRMC.

“We understand and respect Governor Pineda’s views on the matter. This was already discussed in detail by the Gawad Kalasag National Selection Committee (GK-NSC) previously,” Timbal said in a statement.

He said the GK-NSC, a collegial body composed of various member-agencies of the NDRRMC, had decided not to grant Pampanga PDRRMC’s request given “the existing guidelines of the Awards that field validations are reserved for the top 3 contenders.”

According to Timbal, the Pampanga PDRRMC ranked 5th during the evaluations for the 21st GK.

Edited by LZB