ZAMBOANGA CITY — The Office of Civil Defense-9 (OCD-9) on Tuesday announced the winners of the 2017 Gawad Kalasag Award in a ceremony held in one of the hotels in this city.
Emilia Vasquez-Julhajan, OCD-9 assistant regional director, said the winners for the best province category are: Zamboanga del Norte, first prize; and, Zamboanga del Sur, second prize. Kalasag stands for Kalamidad at Sakuna Labanan Sariling Galing ang Kaligtasan.
Zamboanga City is the winner for the highly-urbanized city category while Dapitan City and Isabela City won the first and second prizes, respectively.
The first to third class municipality category winners are: Bayog, Zamboanga del Sur, first; Diplahan, Zamboanga Sibugay, second; Siay, Zamboanga Sibugay, third; and, Molave, Zamboanga del Sur, fourth.
Piñan, Zamboanga del Norte is the lone winner for the best fourth to sixth class municipality category.
The winners for the best higher education institutions are: Pilar College, first; and, Universidad de Zamboanga, second. The best Civil society organization winner is the Southwestern Action for Emergency.
Julhajan said the winners received plaques and cash prizes–PHP50,000, first; PHP30,000 second; and, PHP20,000, third.
Julhajan said the first prize winners in the different categories will represent the region in the National Search for Gawad Kalasag. She said the cash prizes will be used for disaster risk reduction management projects.
The Gawad Kalasag is an annual search for excellence in disaster risk reduction management (DRRM) and designed to encourage the participation of various stakeholders in crafting and implementing DRRM related policies, strategies and programs to protect or shield the hazard prone communities from the adverse impact of natural and human induced calamities. (R. G. Antonet Go/PNA)
