ZAMBOANGA CITY – Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse M. Robredo urged governors, city and municipal mayors, including barangay officials in the Zamboanga Peninsula to formulate and adopt disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation action plans for disaster-free and resilient communities.

The DILG chief made the call after learning from collated DILG field reports that there are 727 flood-prone and 587 landslide prone barangays out of the total 1,904 villages in the whole of Region 9 (Western Mindanao).

The Zamboanga Peninsula is composed of three provinces – Zamboanga Del Sur, Zamboanga Del Norte and Zamboanga Sibugay; has five cities namely: Dipolog, Dapitan, Zamboanga, Isabela and Pagadian – and a total of 67 municipalities in the whole region.

During a forum dubbed as “Tapatan on Disaster Preparedness and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA)” held here today at the Astoria Grand Hotel, Robredo said there is in urgent need for all the local chief executives concerned – from governors down to the barangay level- to be disaster-ready for the benefit of their locality and their constituents.

“I heard that there are still a large number of LGUs (local government units) in the Zamboanga Peninsula which are still non-compliant to our disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation campaign. Many of the Local Disaster Risk Reduction Management councils have yet to submit their respective action plans on both subjects,” the DILG chief said.

“We all know that we may not be able to prevent future occurrence of calamities and disasters. And being prepared is still the best remedy for this. We have seen and heard in the media what happened in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities last December. We should not take for granted the importance of being disaster-ready to prevent loss of lives and properties,” he added.

DILG Director for Region 9 Paisal Abutazil explained that the DILG’s Tapatan on DP was aimed to assist the LGUs in formulating and concretizing their Local Disaster Risk Reduction Action Plans, assess their capabilities on disaster readiness and response and further encourage maximum participation of CSOs and volunteers towards complementation of resources to effectively address problems during calamities.

“The Tapatan activity is a good strategy to increase the level of awareness not only of LCEs, but also their constituents and other stakeholders in mitigating disaster and the ill-effects of climate change. The DILG also apprised the local officials of their roles and responsibilities as prime movers in their respective localities in times of disasters and calamities,” he said.

During yesterday’s (June 19, 2012) activity, which was graced by Robredo as guest of honor and speaker, resource persons and lecturers from the Office of Civil Defense, Department of Science and Technology, Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology discussed disaster and CCA-related topics such as the salient features of Republic Act 10121, the National and Regional Policy Framework Plan on DRR and CCA and geo-hazard mapping, among other subjects.

During the forum, Robredo handed down Performance Challenge Fund (PCF) checks to LGUs that have passed the criteria of the Seal of Good Housekeeping, an awards system designed to recognize exemplary performance of provinces, cities and municipalities.

LGUs that have qualified for the PCF subsidy intended for various LGU development projects are the province of Zamboanga Sibugay and the municipalities of Titay, Diplahan, Siay, Tungawan, Buug and Ipil of Zamboanga Sibugay; Manuel Roxas, Polanco and Sergio Osmea for the province of Zamboanga del Norte; and the municipalities of Aurora and Dumingag of Zamboanga del Sur.

With regard to the monetary reward for the LGU PCF recipients, Abutazil said Zamboanga Sibugay will receive a check amounting to P7 million and P1 million each for the above-mentioned municipalities. (30)

DILG Central News Archive DILG Regional News Archive