Sta. Marcela collabs with schools to enhance disaster contingency plans

Santa Marcela, Apayao - Anchored with the goal of fortifying their disaster preparedness plans for the safety of all learners, Santa Marcela Schools' DRRM coordinators went through a Contingency Plan Enhancement for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management.

The session, held at the EKB Memorial Sports Center on January 26, was facilitated by the Municipal Risk Reduction and Management Office.

This contingency planning, based on R.A 10121, is a management process that analyzes specific potential events in a state of uncertainty and establishes response arrangements in advance to enable timely, effective, and appropriate responses to such events and situations, such as hazards and disasters in particular.

MDRRM Officer Rodel Ballinan said the initiative focused on the development of plans for prevention and mitigation, preparedness, response, recovery, and rehabilitation to ensure learners' security while in schools.

He underscored that crafting effective contingency plans should incorporate appropriate response actions, must be hazard-specific, include alternative courses of action, be flexible, and must be annually updated to efficiently address prevailing concerns.

In a recent news report, a study from the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) indicated that the country, in 2022, ranked first in the world in terms of risks from multiple hazards. This does not exclude the municipality from being susceptible to unprecedented catastrophes.

"Taking this as an imminent threat to learners, the implementation of DRRM plans of schools needs to be effective; otherwise, their safety could be compromised," Ballinan said during the facilitation sessions.

DepEd Santa Marcela staff, in a statement, likewise mentioned the importance and versatility of said cooperative planning, in that it can be applied to instances like natural hazards, human-induced hazards, crises, planned events, sudden increases in displaced population, sudden shortages of funding, and epidemics.

Mayor Evelyn Martinez, as head of the MDRRM council, has expressed hope that these contingency plans will be executed timely and accordingly to protect learners, school personnel, and residents. She added that such initiatives are also expected to strengthen school-community relationships, developing a stronger commitment to responding to disasters or hazards.