BACOLOD City – City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) officer-in-charge Dondon Parandas clarified that barangays in the city have their respective DRRM plans.
What the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Region 6 announced during the Regional DRRM Council second quarter meeting on Thursday in the city was wrong, Parandas stressed.
According to the DILG-6, villages in this city have no Barangay DRRM plans.
Perhaps the Interior department’s regional office was just uninformed, said Parandas.
Around 40 barangays have sought approval of their DRRM plans at the CDRRMO, he stressed.
There are a total of 61 barangays in the city.
What the DILG-6 may have meant, Parandas said, was that the barangays were not using the new template in making DRRM plans.
Parandas said he will meet with barangay officials next week to introduce the new template. Barangays with already-approved DRRM plans may have to revise them, he said.
Five percent of the annual budget of the barangays is allocated for disaster management, Parandas said.
The local DRRMO will have to approve the Barangay DRRM plans before they can be carried out, he explained.
The DRRMO assesses the plans, making sure they avert or at least minimize the damage that may be caused by any calamity, Parandas further said./PN
