The Office of Civil Defense-Cordillera discussed through a webinar the Regional Disaster Response Plans (RDRP) for earthquakes in line with the goal of the Cordillera Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CRDRRMC) to ensure public preparedness for hazards.
The RDRP for earthquakes laid down the framework of the interoperability of the Cordillera response clusters to the Regional Incident Management Team and its integration and coordination with the CRDRRMC Emergency Operations Center.
The RDRP defined roles and responsibilities of stakeholders involved during disaster response operations, establish leadership responsibilities and member participations, institute communication and coordination or interoperability across all emergency cycle sectors and levels, and set the conditions for sustained response operations.
Under the RDRP for earthquakes, the CRDRRMC has formed 11 response clusters with each assigned specific tasks.
These are food and non-food items; camp coordination and camp management; logistics; search, rescue, and retrieval; emergency telecommunications; education; health; law and order; management of the dead and missing; engineering and clearing management; and internally-displaced population protection.
CRDRRMC Chairperson and OCD-Cordillera Director Albert Mogol stressed to participants the importance of people and community preparedness on the hazards that earthquakes may bring especially in the Cordillera given its mountainous terrain that is prone to earthquake- induced landslides.
He said the activity should serve as a continuous reminder to everyone to stay prepared at all times and that the government is serious in its mandate of protecting the people it serves. – Carlito C. Dar
