TACLOBAN CITY- A two- day seminar workshop on Regional and District Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DRRM) teams was conducted by resource persons from the Bureau of Maintenance headed by Engr. Ma. Vishna Manio aimed to review and enhance the participants on the Incident Command System (ICS) as well as the details of their roles and responsibilities during disaster. Members of the DRRM team from district offices of Biliran, Eastern Samar, Southern Leyte, Northern Samar I and II and Samar I and II are in attendance. This is the second batch to attend said training in Region VIII.
The participants were made to realize the varying disaster risks brought about by climate change where Republic Act. 10121 – Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction Management Act & RA 9729 Climate Change Act were enacted paving the way for the creation of the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) chaired by Secretary of National Defense and cascaded down to the 17 Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Management Councils, 79 Provincial DRRM Councils, 122 City DRRM Councils, 1,512 Municipal DRRM Councils and barangay DRRM Councils. The four pillars of DRRM includes prevention and mitigation; disaster preparedness; disaster response; rehabilitation and recovery. The resource speakers stressed more on managing incidents using the incident command system which provides for the achievement of tactical objectives, efficient use of resources and having common operating procedure.
As discussed this ICS is headed by the incident commander whose support staff includes the PIO, safety officer and the liaison officer. The IC’s general staff is lead by operations section chief composed of the operations, logistics, admin-finance and planning units. To fully operationalize the incident command post, incident facilities on site were presented which would guide others in responding once the team mobilizes.
Georeferenced photographs are most helpful, according to Bryan Telmo and other mobile applications to keep the public abreast of incidents in various areas nationwide. Submission of appropriate situational reports were tackled as per D.O. # 38 series of 2010 and a reminder of D.O. # 96 regarding funding request for structures damaged by disaster. It cannot be denied then, that climate change is here to stay and disaster may occur anytime of the day. (MARIANETTE Y. GOMEZ/PR)
