The provincial government allocated P24 million to develop contingency plans for dealing with calamity victims this year.
Baltazar Tribunalo, the Capitol’s consultant for disaster risk reduction management, said the amount is part of a three-year program aimed at developing a province-wide disaster risk reduction plan.
He said the plan will also include relocating the families out of danger zones.
“It’s very ambitious but that’s where we are going. If you don’t relocate them, shall we wait for disaster to happen?” Tribunalo said.
Tribunalo said the three-year program, which started this year in some towns, will be based on developing a province-wide map that will identify flood- and landslide-prone areas as well as towns that are susceptible to sinkholes.
Their program will also include a climate action change plan. Developing these plans will require inputs from local governments, Tribunalo said.
“So our decision-making is based on the practical side on what is the nature of this particular area,” Tribunalo said.
Tribunalo revealed the provincial government’s disaster risk reduction program during a gathering of local government and school officials sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
Science and Technology Secretary Fortunato dela Peña said local governments and universities should coordinate with each other in further refining and completing hazard maps for their areas.
In completing these maps, dela Peña said LGUs and universities should use Philippine-Light Detection and Ranging (Phil-Lidar) remote sensing technology which employs pulsating laser lights to accurately measure elevation data of areas.
Dela Peña said PHIL-Lidar is a tool to expand coverage on high resolution data sets that are suitable for hazard and resource mapping purposes.
The hazard mapping program is funded by the DOST and spearheaded by the University of the Philippines Diliman in collaboration with other universities and local governments across the country.
“The project has been running for three years, and they’re almost at the end of the project implementation. We hope to turn over nearly 900 hazard maps to local governments around the country,” dela Peña said.
Dela Peña said Cebu is one of the provinces that allocate funds to risk reduction and management programs.
“Local governments should be prepared to spend their own money. We are considering to use Cebu as a foster province (for this program),” he said./USJ-R Interns Delyne Marl A. Saragena and Vanisa P. Soriano
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