TABUK CITY, Kalinga – During a five-day training on Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (CBDRRM), the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (CDRRM) reiterates the importance of having more emergency responders in the community.
The presence of emergency or disaster responders is vital in a community because they save lives, ensure health and safety, and meet the subsistence needs of the people affected, says Rhean Meg Quinsaat of CDRRM.
Quinsaat who spoke on the topic disaster preparedness says some of the tasks assigned to emergency responders include warning and evacuation, search and rescue, providing immediate assistance, and assessing damage and continuing assistance.
Quinsaat states that the participants in this exercise are council members of city and provincial DRRM staff, and Tanudan DRRM staff. They are expected to relay the concept of CBDRRM to the various Barangays under their jurisdictions and also train them to be emergency responders.
The training also allowed the participants to put their knowledge to a test through a simulation exercise to initially assess their capacity on disaster response.
She added that the overall aim of the CBDRRM is to introduce the potential scope of disaster preparedness strategy and issues around generating appropriate strategy for disaster preparedness and risk reduction, as well as disaster response.
Additional speakers for the five-day training of trainers included Alyson Banagao and Chariz Sayag from the Cordillera Office of Civil Defense (OCD), along with Gerlie Tacio from La Trinidad Municipal DRRM (MDRRM) and Jonard Lumabi from Rizal MDRRM. Funding for the program was provided by the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Northern Luzon through the AGRIDAM Project.
The topics presented are the following: local Philippine disaster situation, basic concepts on DRRM, overview and legal bases of CBDRRM, community risk assessment, disaster preparedness, disaster rehabilitation and recovery.
Based on the presentation of the OCD, CBDRM is an approach and process of disaster risk management in which communities at risk are actively engaged in the identification, analysis, treatment, monitoring and evaluation of disaster risks in order to reduce their vulnerabilities and enhance their capacities to prevent and withstand damaging effects of hazards. CBDRRM contributes to progressive realization of safety, disaster resilience and development of all. By Darwin S. Serion
