TABUK CITY, Kalinga – A composite special unit was organized under the reorganized Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (PDRRMC) to respond to distress, disaster response, and rescue operations.
During their 4th quarter council meeting, the PDRRMC approved to create the special responder’s unit composed of the Bureau of Fire Protection, Kalinga State University, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, Army Reservist, and other groups trained on disaster response.
A technical working group was formed chaired by Sonny Esteban of BFP and May Buslig of KSU as vice chair. The members are Harvey Calilung of the PDRRMO, Jun Adora of the Provincial Engineering Office, and Raymund Chan of Red Cross.
PDRRM Officer Jolanta Baac committed to allot funds for the management and operations of the special unit.
The PDRRMC agreed to reorganize the council and group members into clusters based on the nature of their mandate and expanded its membership to include other concerned agencies, offices, and civil society organizations.
The reorganized clusters are disaster preparedness, disaster prevention and mitigation, disaster response operations, recovery and rehabilitation, and the secretariat.
PDRRMC Chair and Gov. Ferdinand Tubban thanked the members for their attendance as he acknowledged that each one plays a vital role in keeping the province disaster-resilient.
“Disasters are actually the effects if we abuse our environment,” he said as he challenged the group to take care of the natural resources and protect the blessings given the province.
“We have the res-ponsibility to protect our homeland through a development adaptable to this climate change,” he added.
He reminded that disaster risk is an indicator of poor development so reducing disaster risk requires integration of policies and management practice into the sustainable development goals. “We are managing risks, not just disasters and we must not also forget the value of information dissemination in crisis management,” he said. – Peter A. Balocnit
