DILG to award ‘seal of disaster preparedness’ to LGUs
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO— How prepared are local governments in protecting lives and properties during disasters?
Until last month, there has been no common and exact method for measuring the disaster preparedness and quality of response to calamities of local governments, Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said.
“I’m sure they have attained some level of preparedness because of experiences from past disasters but there is no system that measures that or [which] helps them identify gaps [to enable them to] solve those,” Robredo told the Inquirer.
Without a uniform assessment tool, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has come up with a Seal of Disaster Preparedness (SDP) to help reinforce the disaster preparedness system in the country, he said.
The DILG will award the seal, as well as a cash incentive, to local governments that have developed capability to respond to disasters, as prescribed by Republic Act No. 10121 (Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010).
This Pampanga capital is pursuing the SDP. Aside from rehabilitating a river that serves as a flood drain, the city had passed an ordinance localizing the implementation of RA 10121.
“The ultimate aim is to make use of a set of [measurements] in assessing whether [a local government] is ready or not for the worst typhoons and floods,” Robredo said.
“We’d like to look at institutional, organizational and operational [capabilities]. Is the disaster risk reduction management council functional? Is an alert system in place? Are there designated evacuation centers? Do they have equipment for rescue?” he said.
He said citizens should take the seal as a source of pride as well as a reminder to be vigilant against disasters.
Like the Seal of Good Housekeeping, which the DILG awards and which local governments use to avail of the agency’s Performance Challenge Fund, he said the SDP authorizes local governments to use 70 percent of their calamity fund to buy equipment or organize disaster-response training.
Robredo issued Memorandum Circulars 79 and 73 to guide local governments in the assessment of capabilities and in the use of the calamity fund.
Assessments are helpful, he said.
For instance, the DILG produced a “redundancy protocol” after killer flash floods hit Cagayan de Oro. This means warnings for bad weather or advice for evacuation can flow through two channels that begin either from top to bottom (from DILG to the mayor) or the reverse.
Local governments often consider the lack of equipment a problem, Robredo said, adding that not all coastal towns or cities are equipped with motorized rubber boats.
In an April 16 letter, Benito Ramos, executive director of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, asked local governments to submit an inventory of their equipment.
Other local governments, Robredo said, might have to resort to permanent housing, like in Pampanga where old dikes of the Pampanga River had been damaged. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon
