by Lito Dar

BAGUIO CITY, Wednesday March 16 – The recent 9.8 magnitude earthquake and the tsunami that hit Japan have been raising issues and concerns among neighboring countries including the Philippines.


The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) is busy informing the public that the country is not in imminent danger as far as the issue of nuclear plant explosion or leak in Japan is concern and that the government is on top of the situation.


The Office of Civil Defense in the area, being the chair of the region’s Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DRRM) Council, is also continuously doing trainings, consultations, workshops, and forums to better improve the region’s DRRM preparedness and action plans.


Last Monday, OCD initiated a regional consultation workshop for the development of the Philippine DRRM Framework, which was attended by stakeholders from various sectors such as government line agencies, local government units, non government organizations, people’s organizations, and emergency response groups.


In an interview, Baguio-Benguet Public Information Civic Action Group chairman of the Board engineer Antonio Caluza also assured better preparedness and coordination among the (emergency) response groups in the city as they have developed a lot in the past few years.


“The emergency groups in the city, in coordination with the Office of Civil Defense, have already developed a very laudable cooperation and coordination. I think through unity, we become more and more effective in responding to emergency situations and we also hope that there are others who would come and join us in such effort,” Caluza said.


For the city’s health facilities,Caluza also stressed that he is confident that they had already been tried and tested, for instance,the 1990 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit Baguio, and has been continuously improving in terms of infrastructure and facilities.


For the public, Caluza stressed the importance of preparedness in facing emergency situations and with the Japan earthquake incident, it is important that the public take seriously emergency preparedness such as earthquake drills.


“Preparedness is very important to be safety conscious. It will save lives and even our properties if ever a calamity like an earthquake comes,” he said.


Caluza also stressed that though the initiative of the OCD, they are regularly conducting earthquake drills. Just last month, they joined the conduct of a nationwide simultaneous earthquake drills in various government agencies and schools in the city.


In addition, Caluza also affirmed that as far as the capability of emergency response personnel is concerned, in coordination with OCD, there are regular conduct of trainings such as Collapse Structure Search and Rescue (CSSR) trainings. (PIA CAR)