Datu Odin Sinsuat, MAGUINDANAO- The Office of
Civil Defense- ARMM is bound to strengthen its capacity building endeavours on
disaster risk reduction management through the conduct of "Contingency
Plan Formulation Workshop" with the council members, technical staff and
other concerned agencies on DRR at the provincial level of Lanao del Sur.
The four-day activity participated in by at
least forty (40) representatives from the aforementioned is currently being
held from July 19-22, 2016 at Hotel Almaseer, this town. The event were also
attended by the four (4) pillars of the DRRM thematic areas, the Department of
Interior and Local Government-ARMM, Department of Science and Technology-ARMM,
the Department of Social Welfare and Development-ARMM together with the
Department of Health-ARMM.
Myrna J. Angot, OIC of Civil Defense-ARMM,
said contingency planning is significant for the local government units so they
could have the capacity to respond properly come any disaster in their areas
and that they will be able to formulate better disaster risk reduction and
preparedness plan.
“Inclusive topics in the four-day training
workshop were the orientation on the Philippine DRRM system, the Incident
Command System (ICS), the cluster approach, and finally, the crafting of their
own contingency plan,” said Angot.
Angot said the country is vulnerable to
disasters due to its geographic location, where it frequently experiences
natural hazards such as typhoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis.
“Not only that, because here in the
autonomous region we also experience recurring human induced or man-made
disasters,” said Angot.
Mauricio Civiles, Focal Person of DILG-ARMM,
said when these disasters occur, it is important that the LGUs have mitigated
the impact of disasters and its effects. He added the DRRM as instructed by
newly installed Regional Secretary Noor Hafizullah M. Abdullah shall be a top
priority.
"But due to the increasing complexity of
disasters, assessing the situation of the impacted areas, as well as
determining the numbers of affected population and addressing the priority
needs pose as challenges,” said Civiles.
Col. Tatar Boriongan, PDRRMO of Lanao del
Sur, said the contingency plan aims to strengthen and enhance the operational
capabilities of the local government units in responding to emergency
situations in the localities of Lanao del Sur.
“We also emphasize the importance of
pre-emergency planning throughout every stage of a crisis and a well-managed
response that will optimize the strength and capacities of our various
LDRRMCs,” said Boriongan.
Further, contingency plan is important for it
involves situational awareness through risk assessment, identification of
hazards, its root causes as well as capacities and vulnerabilities, preparation
of locally-driven hazard maps in the absence of scientific maps, intelligence
and information assessments, hazard analysis, scenario-building for a
worst-case situation, with a predictive response element to an impending
emergency by ensuring the availability of necessary resources, and by
establishing a mechanism for rapid decision-making founded on authority,
responsibility and accountability.
In addition, the contingency plan lives prior
to an occurrence of disaster event, by arranging potential response structure,
mechanisms, resources, and disaster risk reduction measures that are focused
into a certain emergency event. A CP assists in: Focusing the attention and
facilitating the response capabilities’ leaning forward to a particular
disaster event, Generating commitment among parties involved to act in a
coordinated manner before the emergency occurs; Mobilizing effective actions
and resources for emergency response; and Designing a concrete and continuous
plan until the emergency occurs and which should be continuously updated as
long as the hazard exists or can be discontinued when the hazard is no longer
threatening.
It is also a response preparedness measure
which is focused on establishing mechanisms and priorities in response to a
disaster event. Its effectiveness, however, depend on the effectiveness of
other DRRM activities that cover pre-disaster concerns that effectively
contribute to risk reduction, prevention and mitigation and even post-disaster
recovery and rehabilitation. In this sense, CP together with other activities
make up a holistic approach and takes a more proactive framework consistent
with the overall objectives of DRRM.
The DRRM is one of the priority programs of
ARMM Regional Governor, Mujiv S. Hataman, where the autonomous region
frequently experiences both human induced or man-made and natural disasters. (GILMHAR A. LAO-MINDANAO EXPOSE’)
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