April 18, 2024

Members of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council convened for a planning session to update the Baguio’s Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Plan (LDRRMP) to meet global standards on disaster resiliency.
CDRRMC Officer-in-Charge Antonette Anaban said the updating of the LDRRMP is to ensure that all plans, projects, and activities (PPAs) on disaster resiliency are aligned to national and international policies particularly the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives.
Baguio City and Ormoc City were invited recently by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction for peer-to-peer training in South Korea as both local government units committed to reduce climate risks and become the next resilience hub in the Asia Pacific under the Making Cities Resilient 2030 (MCR2030) initiative.
Incheon City in South Korea was the first to be declared a disaster-resilient city followed by Makati City for their risk governance and technological innovations introduced in dealing with disaster and resilience.
Anaban said for Baguio to become the next resilience hub, the city government needs to review the LDRRMP and assess the PPAs of the city government listed under the Annual Investment Plan (AIP) to ensure a safer, adaptive, and resilient Baguio City towards sustainable development.
In the proposed 2023 AIP, the city government has identified six PPAs on disaster prevention and mitigation, 25 on disaster preparedness, 23 on disaster rehabilitation and recovery, and five on disaster response.
Anaban said the CDRRMC needs to draft the city’s roadmap towards resiliency journal and integrate the existing DRRM plan to the MCR’s 10 essential score point.
The 10-point disaster-resilience scorecard will be used by the UNDRR for the preliminary level assessment where the LGU will have to self-assess plans and programs backed by data and documentation.
After passing the primary assessment, a more stringent scorecard will be used to monitor and review progress and challenges in the implementation of plans and projects on disaster resilience.
As a resilience hub, local government units are committed to implementing a three-year action plan to further strengthen resilience towards disaster risk reduction. – Jessa Mardy P. Samidan