DAVAO CITY –— North Cotabato Governor Nancy A. Catamco wants the immediate reactivation of all Barangay Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Councils in the province.
Catamco emphasized this to the Department of Interior and Local Government XII (DILG XII) Regional Director Josephine Cabrido-Leysa, CESO III, and Provincial Director Ali B. Abdullah in a brief conference recently.
“There is a need for each barangay to reactivate their BDRRMC. I want each barangay to identify an open space which residents can use as temporary relocation site during disaster occurrences like earthquakes,” Catamco said.
With an identified open space in every barangay where residents can take refuge, they will not be automatically uprooted from their barangays. Affected families staying in a common open space within the barangay are easier to monitor, assist in terms of food and non-food supplies, and easier to document, she added.
She also explained that after her post-earthquake assessment with experts from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB), she has insisted that the MGB applies for appropriate qualification in the areas categorized as no-build zones or high-risk due to landslides or flood-prone, or areas as habitable or as non-habitable with short-term or long-term mitigation. The Governor said, this way, both officials and evacuees are properly guided and can make actions or decisions accordingly.
Catamco laments the delay in gathering of data in earthquake-affected local government units especially in Makilala which has stalled the rehabilitation and recovery program of the province.
According to a consolidated report of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, there are 33,784 families affected by the series of strong earthquakes last year in the province, with 4,613 families still in evacuation centers and 14,237 families outside evacuation centers. The report also indicated a total of 16,264 partially-damaged and 12,235 totally damaged houses in Cotabato’s nine municipalities and one city.
