DOST disaster info roadshow off to SOCCSKSARGEN

Now on the homestretch, “Iba Na ang Panahon (INAP):Science for Safer Communities”  -  a collaboration between the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of the Interior and Local Government, and the Office of Civil Defense, turns  to SOCCSKSARGEN region for its second to the last leg of information and education campaigns (IECs) for disaster mitigation and preparedness.

The SOCCSKSARGEN leg will be held from May 26-27, 2014 at the KCC  Convention Center in General Santos City, South Cotabato.  The city has just re-organized its  City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council for a more effective disaster management program.

The regional IECs constitute a nationwide roadshow which began in March 2014 to arm local government units (LGUs)  with disaster information  via science-based tools  like 3D hazard maps, flood models, Project NOAH website, hazard simulation software, and mobile applications.

Provincial governors, city and municipal mayors, disaster risk reduction and city planning officers, as well as LGU consultants are expected to attend the two-day event which will focus  on local hazard risks in the region. 

According to DOST Secretary Mario G. Montejo, INAP “embraces  the change in our seasonal climate and weather patterns  and  the severity of the impact of weather-related natural hazards in the country.”

In recent years, the region, composed of the provinces of South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, and the city of General Santos, has experienced its share of natural calamities including heavy rainfall which caused flooding and landslides in 2012. The catastrophe led to the evacuation of hundreds of families in General Santos City and Alabel.  Several houses and highways were also submerged in 1-2 meters of floodwater in General Santos as  well as in Sarangani province.

Just last April 20, 2014, a twister hit Barangay Tinagacan in General Santos City, reportedly affecting eight puroks.  

Through exercises and workshops to be conducted during the IEC, participants will be able to identify hazards in their own localities such as fault lines, previous flood and storm surge episodes, and other calamities that affected and may still affect their communities especially in the face of climate change. They will also have the chance to formulate action plans in response to various  disasters  including a typhoon as destructive as Yolanda and an earthquake as powerful as  that which pummeled parts of  Visayas in October 2013.  

“Early warning leads to early action,” said Sec. Montejo. “If our local leaders are able to act early, then they will be able to minimize loss and lead their communities into early recovery.”

INAP will be capped by its National Capital Region leg set for May 29-30 at the Philippine International Convention Center in Manila. (STII)