Quezon City gov’t employees to be tapped as rescue volunteers

MANILA, Philippines — A proposed measure that would tap Quezon City government employees as volunteers in local disaster risk reduction operations is under review by the city council.

The council resolution drafted by second district councilor Ranulfo Ludovica has been referred to the committees on public order and security and illegal drugs, on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, and on laws, rules and internal government for further study.

In Ludovica’s draft measure, he proposed that the city council ask Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista to mobilize government employees who wish to volunteer for disaster risk reduction operations in the city.

The volunteers, through their respective offices and departments, are to be accredited by the defense department’s office of civil defense (OCD) as well as the barangays where they live for the operations.

The move, Ludovica explained, would add more personnel to rescue operations in times of disaster.

He added, “It is necessary to mobilize the able and willing employees as disaster volunteers to help in strengthening the capacities of vulnerable and marginalized groups to mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from the effects of disasters.”

The councilor further pointed out, “Volunteerism in disaster-related activities would create an opportunity for the city employees to give back to the people, in a little way they can, the blessings that they are receiving in the form of salaries and other government benefits.”

He cited the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010, which has authorized government agencies, civil society organizations, and local government units to mobilize personnel as DND-OCD accredited volunteers in disaster risk reduction operations.

Apart from the government employee’s accreditation, a volunteer who helped out in disaster risk reduction operations is to be given “work credit” that would cancel his absence from the office.