Bogo City to ask families for disaster plans

In a classroom, the student elected to lead is called the “class president.”

But in Bogo City, the class president is also given the title “incident commander” or head of a disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) unit.

This is one of the features of a proposed city ordinance which will also require all families to have their own disaster-preparedness plan.

“We’re trying to make DRRM a habit in the city not just for old people but also to the young to create and raise awareness. Hopefully, when they grow up, they develop the practice,” said Bogo’s DRRM officer, Ben Fredrick Rodriguez.

The program, dubbed the Information Management in Preparation for Disasters or “I.M. PrepareD,” caught the attention of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) which plans to make it a model for other programs in the country.

DILG Undersecretary Austere Panadero was in Cebu City last week to meet Rodriguez and Bogo officials about the concept.

The DILG plans to use it as a benchmark for other DRRM programs in the country and incorporate it with the one they’re crafting, said Willie Jean Cabanag, DILG-7 DRRM focal officer.

She said they learned of the program from the monthly reports of field officers monitoring the implementation of the R.A. 10121 or Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction Management Act of 2010.

Rodriguez said the program is based on lessons from supertyphoon Yolanda.

“When we we’re looking at the DRRM Act, it always started at the barangay level. But what about the family? That’s a good foundation for DRRM,” said Rodriguez.

The draft ordinance was passed on second reading. Families who do not follow the ordinance’s provisions will be “the last to be evacuated and the last to receive relief goods and other benefits intended for disaster victims.”

All families will also be asked to formulate their own family disaster preparedness plan, said Rodriguez.

The barangay DRRM unit is tasked to teach families on how to craft the plan and do a house-to-house risk assessment to identify dangers in the area.

“For example, we would advise them that the decorations on the ceiling may fall and lead to injuries. Practical advice so that families are informed,” he said.

They will also be asked to make an evacuation map, prepare an emergency kit, create a communication plan and set up a food and water storage container capable of a three-day food supply.

Rodriguez added that they should also be informed of the designated evacuation areas in their respective barangays With the information, he said a family and its members would know what to do when the next big calamity hits.

BASELINE DATA

Barangays, he said, have to make hazard maps and designate their own evacuation center and a helispot where first-responders via helicopters can land.

He said the barangays also have to get baseline data of their areas such as the number of families. Rodriguez cited an instance during Yolanda relief operations when they had difficulty delivering the accurate number of goods to barangays because they lacked data.

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