MindanaoToday.com | Normin DRRM body gears up for La Niña
By Uriel Quilinguing
Northern Mindanao have been bracing with intermittent rains the past two weeks due to an inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ) weather disturbance, yet the the onset of La Niña episode may still be within the last quarter of this year, according to advisories from the state’s weather bureau.
Earlier, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) placed the onset of La Niña—the cooling of Pacific Ocean’s surface and subsequent above normal rainfall–as early as July to September, this year.
This, after an El Niño which refers to the warming of the sea level’s surface that brought dryspells and drought early months this year—an episode that PAGASA terminated on March 7 this year, and from then on the La Niña watch begun.
On Thursday evening, July 11, PAGASA attributed the heavy rain to the southwest monsoon weather system. It caused urban flooding in Cagayan de Oro and nearby areas, rendering several main roads impassable to motorists and hampered flow of vehicular traffic.
The day before, in a Kapihan sa PIA forum at the Limketkai Event Center in Cagayan de Oro, key leaders of the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC) were one in saying: “We have to prepare for La Niña.”
Although they met primarily to drumbeat the activities for the Disaster Resilience Month in July but their views were far-reaching.
PRO-ACTIVE STANCE
This early, the regional office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has already prepositioned 80,430 family foodpacks in its 38 warehouses across Northern Mindanao which is composed of five provinces, nine cities, and 84 municipalities. Prepositioning of goods has been one of DSWD’s notable quick-response strategies during man-made and natural calamities.
Antonio Sugarol, regional director of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) in Northern Mindanao and chair of the RDRRMC said: “We meet once a year for this (Disaster Resilience Month celebration), but our campaign on the four thematic areas–prevention and mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery and rehabilitation from disasters is year-round.”
These, aside from the formulation of disaster resilience plans, risks management and institutionalization of planning and budgeting at the local government levels, including land use plans—empowering them though skills trainings– which are being assessed and monitored by RDRRMC-member agencies.
“All 98 local government units are participating in this year’s KALASAG,” Sugarol told Mindanao Today, referring to the NDRRMC’s annual search for “Kalamidad at Sakuna Labanan, Sariling Galing ang Kaligtasan” or KALASAG Award recipients.
Local governments in Northern Mindanao, provinces, cities and municipalities are being assessed in their compliance with the provisions of Republic Act No. 10121, the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 or DRRM Act. “Some are even beyond compliant,” the OCD-10 head quipped.
WORK IN PROGRESS
Local government’s compliance to the the DRRM Act is crucial because resiliency has become one of the determining factors in the conferment of the Seal of Good Local Governance (SGLG) by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), DILG-10 Local Government Capability Development Division Chief Hazel Occeña said in the forum.
Occeña said they facilitate the conduct of DRRM trainings for local government officials and personnel, inviting experts on risk mitigation and disaster preparedness such as the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and its attached agencies.
She said they have also been supporting local government initiatives in the construction of evacuation centers so that they will no longer be utilizing school classrooms and other facilities as temporary shelters for internally displaced persons (IDPs)– due to natural calamities or human-induced conflicts.
Virgilio Fuertes, DOST-10 assistant regional director for technical operations, said their Office and attached Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) and PAGASA do lend their expertise, technologies, tools, and applications in DRRM trainings.
Fuertes said that aside from weather forecasting which PAGASA does, they have already set up flood monitoring sensors and put in place early warning systems in coordination with local governments through the DRRM offices. These, he said, are found in the region’s river basins and waterways.
He said that aside from flood monitoring, the DOST with PHIVOLCS and local government’s Office of the Building Official (OBO) have been pushing for regular inspections of structures to determine their integrity during earthquakes and whether the provisions of the National Building Code of the Philippines (Presidential Decree No. 1096) have been complied with.
DSWD-10’s Delia Maravillosa, who heads the Disaster Response Management Division, said they have been receiving requests for augmentation of family food packs from local governments across the region whenever there are calamities, hence the doubling in the number of family food packs from their usual 40,000 allocation.
Maravillosa said they make sure they could serve geographically isolated and deprived areas (GIDA) in Northern Mindanao, hence the stockpiling of family food packs in 34 warehouse families. The list of beneficiaries are prepared by community leaders, not by DSWD personnel, she said.
“If there are complaints, we ask local officials to show cause why,” the DSWD-10 disaster response management in-charge said and that they will only monitor the distribution but do not determine who should be the recipients.
BUILDING BACK BETTER
Meanwhile, Leonila Cajarte, NEDA-10 assistant regional director, said their office being the secretariat of the Regional Development Council coordinates with agencies involved in implementation of infrastructure projects to ensure that those left partially or totally damaged by natural calamities are either repaired or replaced—be it roads and bridges, river controls, irrigation systems, public buildings, among others.
This, she said, must adhere to the “Building Back Better” of BBB approach. BBB means that in post-disaster recovery that reduces vulnerability to future disasters and build community resilience to address physical, social, environmental, and economic vulnerabilities and shocks.
Sugarol said the four thematic areas in DRRM encompass natural and man-made calamities co-chaired by regional offices of the DOST, DILG, DSWD, and the NEDA—all actively involve in a work in progress, that of building disaster resilience. (30)
###