BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera Gawad KALASAG for 2017 commenced with the gathering of all member agencies of the search’s Regional Selection Committee (RSC).
Joining the Office of Civil Defense as one of the assessors are different regional line agencies like Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Health, National Economic and Development Authority, Bureau of Fire Protection, Philippine Red Cross, Philippine Information Agency, Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, and Philippine Advocates for Resilient Communities.
These agencies convened on February 27, 2017, at Chalet Hotel, Baguio City to discuss the evaluation process of the said search in line with the new guidelines and criteria set by the National Selection Committee (NSC).
Deadline for submission is set on March 10, 2017, while the desk evaluation is scheduled on March 14. After the assessment, the qualified entries will undergo field validation on March 16 to 30. The final Board of Validators’ deliberation will be held on March 31, 2017, where the RSC is set to determine deserving entries to compete at the national level.
“Gawad KALASAG is more than just a rewards mechanism in the field of disaster risk reduction. It aims to showcase exemplary examples of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation (DRR – CCA) programs that build community resiliency in the region” said Franzes Ivy Carasi, OCD CAR information officer.
The Gawad KALASAG, which stands for “Kalamidad at Sakuna Labanan SAriling Galing ang kaligtasan”, is the government’s way of promoting the spirit of volunteerism among agencies and individuals and also strengthening the resilience and adaptive capacity of communities to disaster risks.
By Celina Cleofe Padernal
