MANILA, Philippines—Several congressmen on Saturday asked the government agencies concerned to conduct a thorough assessment of the disaster-preparedness of the Batasang Pambansa complex, home of the House of Representatives in Quezon City, to determine if it can withstand a magnitude-7.2-magnitude earthquake.
Muntinlupa Representative Rodolfo Biazon, chair of the committee on national defense and security, said the congressmen wanted to know if the Batasang Pambansa complex was earthquake-proof.
In a recent hearing of the committee, lawyer Priscilla Duque, director of the Office of Civil Defense, said although the Batasang Pambansa complex was not actually situated on a geological fault line, studies have shown that areas near fault lines could, in fact, experience greater damage.
“Such is the situation of the Batasang Pambansa complex,” Duque said.
Biazon urged the House Sergeant-at-Arms and House security to conduct earthquake drills for the Secretariat and the congressional staff of congressmen as well as for other personnel.
Biazon also asked the Department of Public Works and Highways and other concerned government agencies to conduct a thorough study and assessment of the sturdiness of all government buildings in the country.
“We in Congress believe that we still need to gather further observations and investigations on how to deal with disasters wrought by natural calamities like earthquakes and tsunamis or we wouldn’t know how to legislate vis-à-vis disasters like that,” Biazon said.
“That’s why we are asking the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council to address this concern because it is they who would know what kind of legislation we should propose. They are the specialists,” he added.
Other congressmen who also filed their respective resolutions asking for similar assessments and preparedness are were Representatives Gabriel Luis Quisumbing (6th District, Cebu), Rufus Rodriguez (2nd District, Cagayan de Oro City), Maximo Rodriguez Jr. (Abante Mindanao), Roger Mercado (Lone District, Southern Leyte), Danilo Suarez (Quezon), and Jim Hataman Salliman (Lone District, Basilan).
Agham Party-list Rep. Angelo Palmones said there was also a need to determine the country’s state of preparedness for natural disasters in terms of risk prevention and mitigation, rescue and evacuation, medical assistance, provisions for food and clothing and even temporary shelters.
“The occurrence of any of these natural disasters that can cause massive destruction and death would require equally massive rescue efforts that would need equally massive resources, which the country does not have enough of,” Palmones said.
Palmones pointed out that the country is in the path of at least 20 typhoons a year, many of which are of high intensity. These could be the result of climate change, which can cause extensive damage to property, infrastructure, agricultural crops, fisheries infrastructure and death.
He noted there are 22 active volcanoes in the country.
“Mt. Bulusan, which erupted recently, caused the displacement of many residents in its surrounding areas,” Palmones said.
Las Piñas Rep. Mark Villar said that while earthquakes are inevitable, the damage they unleash depends on the preparedness of the government and its citizenry.
“It should not be taken lightly as it is apparent that an earthquake will soon hit our country,” Villar said.
“Like Japan, the Philippines lies in the ‘Ring of Fire’—an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching around the Pacific where about 90 percent of the world’s quakes occur, including the one that triggered the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed about 230,000 people in 12 nations,” Villar said.