DepEd creates own disaster office

To ensure the safety of the education community, the Department of Education (DepEd) has formed its own disaster management office to serve as a central planning, policy-making and operations body in times of calamity.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro has ordered the creation of the DepEd Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (DRRMO) to enhance the agency’s disaster preparedness, response and mitigation measures.

“This department shall create the DRRMO to institutionalize the culture of safety at all levels, to systematize protection of education investments and to ensure continued delivery of quality education services,” said Luistro in DepEd Order No. 50.

The DRRMO will establish mechanisms which will prepare, guarantee protection and increase resiliency of DepEd constituents in the face of disaster, Luistro said.

It will be led by a core group composed of key officials in the DepEd central office, he said.

The DRRMO shall serve as a “venue to discuss DRRM, to recommend policy actions and propose program [which will mitigate and reduce the impact of disasters]” to DepEd officials, staff, teachers, students and even DepEd’s property.

It is expected to create disaster response modules for students and provide schools with emergency kits for their use in times of disaster.

The DepEd will also create an Emergency Operations Center which will serve as the department’s nerve center in times of calamity.

The order, addressed to all DepEd executives, directors, local officials and school heads, was issued in line with the 2010 Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act, which mandates all government agencies to establish disaster mitigation bodies.

Students are among the worst affected in times of disaster such  as typhoons, landslides and other calamities. Their school resources, among them, books, desks, computers and even entire classrooms, are damaged if not totally destroyed. Tarra Quismundo