Kalinga PDRRMC creates special disaster responders unit

This article is contributed by Peter Balocnit of PIA Kalinga.

Tabuk City, Kalinga - A composite special unit was organized under the reorganized Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (PDRRMC) task to respond to distress, disaster response and rescue operations.

PDRRMC members during their 4th quarter full council meeting held today at MHotel approved to create the special responders unit composed of the Bureau of Fire Protection, Kalinga State University, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippines National Police, Army Reservist and other groups trained on disaster response.

A technical working group was formed chaired by Sonny Esteban of BFP, May Buslig of KSU as vice chair and members are Harvey Calilung of the PDRRMO, Jun Adora of the Provincial Engineering Office and Raymund Chan of Red Cross to organized it.

Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Officer Jolanta Baac committed to fund the management and operations of said special unit.

Earlier, PDRRMC approved to reorganize the council to group members into clusters based on the nature of their mandate and expanded its membership to include other concern agencies, offices and civil society organizations.

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Reorganized clusters are the secretariat, disaster preparedness, disaster prevention and mitigation, disaster response operations, recovery and rehabilitation.

Governor Ferdinand Tubban is still the overall PDRRMC chairman.

In his message, Gov. Tubban expressed his gratitude to the members for their attendance acknowledging also that each and everyone plays a vital role in keeping the province a disaster resilient province, hoping also that the meeting will strengthen the traditional bond and improve coordination and cooperation.

“Disasters are actually the effects if we abuse our environment”, he said challenging the group to take care of the natural resources and protect the blessings given the province. “We have the responsibility to protect our homeland through a development adaptable to this climate change”, he added.

He reminded the body 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.

Earlier during the meeting, the PDRRMO presented the PDRRMC accomplishment for 2020, proposed upgrading and expansion of early warning systems including COVID-19 updates and response measures.

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