PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan – Palawan’s Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (PDRRMO) is seeking a PHP125-million budget for next year.
PDRRMO chief Cruzalde Ablaña, in a meeting Wednesday afternoon, said the proposed fund had already been approved by the PDRRM Council members, and it is higher than its PHP112-million budget this year.
Ablaña said the 2018 disaster fund, purchases would be used to purchase several fire trucks and more advanced ambulances.
“We don’t have these badly needed equipment, especially the 4×4 ambulance that can reach difficult terrains in remote places,” he said.
Under Republic Act 10121 or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010, 70 percent of the disaster fund is for disaster prevention and mitigation, preparedness, response, and rehabilitation and recovery, and the remaining 30 percent for quick response and after the declaration of a state of calamity.
During the meeting, the PDRRM Council also discussed the implementation of upcoming activities in the first week of December, such as the Incident Command System (ICS) executive course on Dec. 4 that aims to orient Council members on the mandate of concerned government agencies in disaster response.
“The purpose of the ICS is to centralize the instruction with only one commanding and synchronizing the responses, so as to avoid the duplication of efforts, activities and resources in times of disaster,” he said.
On Dec. 5-8, the PDRRMO will hold an inter-agency contingency planning workshop to ascertain the roles of each agency involved in disaster response. (Keith Anthony Fabro/PNA)
