Makati starts distributing ‘Go Bags,’ helmets to schoolchildren

The contents of a “go bag” will allow its owner to survive for the next 72 hours after a disaster. —Makati PIO

Metro Manila’s “most prepared city against geological hazards, including an earthquake,” has started distributing “Go Bags” to its schoolchildren for the “Big One.”

Through the Makati Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO), 12,298 of these emergency kits were handed out to public schools as part of the city’s disaster preparedness program.

Schools get priority

“We are giving priority to building disaster readiness in our schools because these are where children, who are among our most vulnerable constituents, stay for the most part of the day,” Mayor Abby Binay said in a statement.

Makati received a citation in 2014 from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) for its emergency preparedness.

The Emergency Go Bag Project will benefit the city’s public day care centers, preschools, elementary and secondary schools. Aside from the go bags, the city government will also distribute 17,300 small helmets for children and 8,775 adult helmets for teachers and school personnel.

Critical help

According to MDRRMO chief Richard Raymund Rodriguez, a go bag is a portable survival kit meant to help an individual or a family survive within the next 72 hours after a disaster.

Rodriguez said two types of Go Bags would be given.

Emergency Go Bag 1 contains 91 items, including a hygiene kit, tools for light, communication and first aid. It also has emergency tools such as an emergency rope, a 13-function folding pocket knife, thermal blanket, tube tent and a hand-cranked radio with flashlight. These will be stored in each classroom.

The Emergency Go Bag 2, on the other hand, has 14 items such as food bars, emergency glow sticks, thermal blanket and N95 masks. Rodriguez said they wanted to distribute these to all public schoolchildren before the end of the year.

Metro Manila and nearby provinces are preparing for the “Big One,” possibly a magnitude 7.2 earthquake to be generated by the movement of the West Valley Fault, as predicted by Phivolcs.