Recognizing the need to provide the public accessible health commodities within 24 hours in times of emergencies and disasters, the Baguio City Council has enacted an ordinance adopting and institutionalizing the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management for Health (DRRM-H) System for the City of Baguio.
The ordinance was approved by the city council during its regular session last June 19.
The passage of the ordinance was prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic where the city’s health care system was strained due to the overwhelming number of patients infected by the virus.
Institutionalization of a DRRM-H system at the local level is also mandated by Section 17 of Republic Act 11223 or the Universal Health Care Act and by various administrative orders issued by the Department of Health.
Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda, main author of the ordinance, said institutionalization of the DRRM-H is a vital step towards capacitating the City Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Office (CDRRMO) and other units for their planning, implementation, financing, and operationalization of health response towards emergencies and disasters.
Under the ordinance, the city’s DRRM-H plan shall be drafted, finalized, and institutionalized by the City Health Services Office. It shall be integrated in the over-all City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Plan.
The CHSO shall lead in providing technical inputs and in the development of response efforts for health-related emergencies/disasters which shall be anchored in the DRRM-H plan.
The CDRRM-H plan shall be the overall road map of the city for response efforts towards disasters and emergencies.
All service delivery units, public or private, shall institutionalize the DRRM-H system within their health facilities and develop their specific plans consistent with the provisions of the ordinance.
These service delivery units shall tailor-fit or customize the DRRM-H System based on the DOH DRRM-H Planning Guide of 2018.
The City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council shall ensure the integration of the city’s DRRM-H Plan into the CDRRM plan. The integrated CDRRM plan shall be crafted comprehensively in accordance with the national, regional, and city framework and policies on disaster risk reduction in close coordination with the local development councils.
The ordinance shall also create the city’s DRRM-H Planning Management consisting of the mayor; chairperson of Sanggunian’s committee on health and sanitation, ecology, and environmental protection; city health officer as the DRRM-H focal person; medical officer IV as DRRM-H coordinator; focal persons on the quad clusters for health; representatives from the health care provider networks technical unit; representatives from the CDRRMO; and other members as may be deemed necessary.
The corresponding budgetary allotment shall be based on the consolidated, integrated, and finalized CDRRM plan funded primarily by the Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund.
Unexpended budgetary allocations for DRRM-H shall accrue to a special trust fund solely for the purpose of supporting disaster risk reduction and management activities of the CDRRMC within the next five years. Any such amount still not fully used after five years shall revert to the general fund and will be available for other social services to be identified by the city council.
The ordinance has been transmitted to the Mayor’s Office to be signed by the chief executive. – Jordan G. Habbiling
