MANILA — To improve the responsiveness to emergencies and accidents of barangays and the city disaster management council, Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte is planning to adopt the disaster risk reduction scheme of its sister city, Davao.
In her speech before the members of Asosayon ng mga Barangay Captain (ABC) on Monday, Belmonte cited the recent fire incident in Barangay Manresa where almost 100 houses and 200 families were affected, saying she was dismayed with the inadequate number of personnel deployed during the blaze.
“The incident has made me realize that we have to do something about it. We have to improve our responses,” Belmonte said.
“I went to Davao last year, and I saw how advanced their emergency team is. They have this warehouse full of emergency vehicles like ambulances and buses for mass transport to hospitals. They are prepared for all kinds of accidents and I want Quezon City to have something like that,” she added.
Belmonte also admired the response team of Davao City which she thinks has deployed effective measures to provide better services during emergencies.
“They also have a complete team that is always ready to be dispatched anytime. It is composed of medics, social workers, fire-fighters, policemen, and others so in times of disasters, everything is easily covered. I am planning to adopt that that’s why I am sending our people to Davao for the seminar,” she said.
“No matter where you live, within 3-5 minutes, there is already a response team. I think that is something we should learn from the city of Davao,” she added.
Belmonte cited that she has made agreements with Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte for the trainings and seminars on disaster risk reduction for the barangay captains including the kagawads of the Sangguninang Kabataan (SK).
“I asked them to prepare a program that shows their best practices and now, it is already arranged for us, through Mayor Sara Duterte. Surely, our barangay captain and SK kagawads will learn something from them which we can adopt and apply in times of accidents,” she said.
