BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan expressed satisfaction over the response of the members of the City Disaster Risk Reductionand Management Council (CDRRMC) and the different Barangay Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Councils (BDRRMCs) in responding to calls for assistance during the onslaught of the monsoon rains over the past week.
The local chief executive claimed there has been a significant improvement on how concerned stakeholders respond to calls for help during emergency situations aside from the improving awareness of people on what to do and whom to immediately get in touch with when confronted with hazards, which resulted to preventing the loss of lives and inflicting heavy damage to properties around the city.
“We hope that we will be able to sustain our significant gains in our disaster response efforts apart from working on preventive measures that will address the existence of casualties during emergency situations in our city. We were able to work on these things in the past and it seems we are gaining ground in adhering to the prescribed standards of disaster response and mitigation,” Domogan stressed.
He also expressed the gratitude of the local government to the thousands of volunteers who always make themselves available to assist the CDRRMC and the BDRRMCs during emergency situations. They play a key role in the provision of technical assistance and additional manpower in dealing with simple and complicated scenarios during the onslaught of calamities and emergency situations around the city.
According to him, the put up of a separate CDRRMC building in the compound of the City Engineering Office contributed in providing opportunities for the city’s technical personnel, volunteers and barangay disaster groups to sustain the conduct of year-round trainings that have equipped them to deal with emergency situations.
The completion of the CDRRMC structure will be an added boost to the efforts of the local government in trying to establish a decent facilitate that will serve as a training ground for emergency responders who help people from eminent dangers in their communities as well as properties from being heavily damaged by the onslaught of natural and man-made disasters.
Initially, the local government allocated some P70 million for the put up of the 6-storey CDRRMC building but city officials decided to further increase the same to 8 storeys. It will serve as a one-stop disaster center and evacuation facility wherein the last phase of the project will be implemented the soonest after the conduct of the bidding process.
Part of the structure includes the centralized disaster operations center, multipurpose training center, evacuation center and the storage rooms for the purchased disaster response equipment, apart from available parking spaces for its disaster response vehicles.
The CDRRMC is being manned by personnel of the local government who work on a 24-hour shifting schedule for them to be able to immediately respond to calls for assistance from concerned residents during emergency situations in the different parts of the city, especially during the onslaught of man-made and natural calamities considering that the city as a calamity-stricken area. By Dexter A. See
