Echoes From

BY JOHNNY DAYANG

LGU initiatives in disaster preparedness

The recent onslaught by super typhoon Juan has highlighted once again the importance and value of disaster preparedness and disaster risk reduction for Filipinos whose lives are inextricably meshed with natural and man-made disasters.
Given the realities of global warming and the stronger and harsher weather disturbances it promises to create, disaster risk reduction and mitigation has become an imperative survival need. And every time the subjects of climate change, disaster mitigation and zero casualty crop up one name prominently comes to mind – that of Albay Governor Joey S. Salceda.
Gov. Salceda’s name hugged the news recently again after the National Disaster Coordinating Council, now the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) declared the Albay Provincial Disaster Risk and Management Council as the Best PDRRMC for the second year in a row under its annual Kalasag awards.
An annual honors program of the Department of National Defense NDRRMC, the Kalasag Awards aim to publicly recognize local government initiatives at disaster preparedness and disaster risk reduction and mitigation.
Salceda has made Zero Casualty his all-consuming governance goal during times of disasters. Other local governments and even President Noynoy Aquino have adopted Albay’s zero casualty objectives when calamity strikes. As a result, government performance during the recent typhoon Juan onslaught was definitely much better than in previous disaster situation.
The Kalasag Award national selection committee in its citation noted that the Albay PDRRMC, as re-engineered by Governor Joey Salceda has made Albay “an epitome of a resilient province…the model of disaster risk reduction and management scheme, not only in the Philippines but also in the global arena.
The Kalasag committee stressed that Albay’s “response mechanism, early recovery and rehabilitation measures are commendable, enabling the PDRRMC to achieve its zero-casualty objective through effective and efficient implementation of the four phases of disaster risk management.”
Albay set up is disaster risk reduction mechanisms to attain to avoid casualties after super typhoon “Reming” hit Albay and left at least 1,500 people dead or missing, and untold destruction to properties more two years ago.