PH playing catch up in disaster preparedness – OCD
The Philippines needs to catch up with its Southeast Asian neighbors on disaster preparedness to allow its citizens to deal with natural calamities similar to the magnitude 7.7 temblor that struck Myanmar and Thailand last week, the spokesperson of the Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) said on Tuesday.
In an interview on government television, OCD spokesperson Chris Bendijo backed Malacañang’s call for local government units to strictly monitor structures and their adherence to the National Building Code.
“We keep reminding our people about the other aspect of readiness—that is preparedness even before a disaster strikes—this is where we have a lot of catching up to do,” he said.
Bendijo cited the need for local governments to ensure that structures comply with the standards set by the National Building Code in order to allow them to withstand a strong earthquake, such as the projected “Big One,” or a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that may strike along Metro Manila’s West Valley Fault.
“LGUs need to check whether the buildings are compliant to ensure their resilience. Our earthquake drills involving ‘duck, cover and hold’ will be useless if the buildings we are in collapse because they did not follow the Building Code,” he said.
Implementation of building code
He said that if strictly followed, the current metrics set by the National Building Code remain effective in ensuring that structures in the country can withstand earthquakes and become resilient.
Bendijo said that the current government policies are adequate, but the issue lies in their implementation.
“We believe that our compliance needs to improve, such as in the issuance of building or occupancy permits, the LGUs need to make sure that the plans submitted conform with the Building Code,” he said in an interview over “Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon.”
“We must remember that whenever we take shortcuts, it puts our lives and those of our families in danger when tragedy strikes,” Bendijo added.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) is also discussing proposals to retrofit aging government structures in the country.
“if I may share that in Japan, 100 percent of their hospitals are already retrofitted, while 80 percent of their schools are retrofitted. So, in terms of resilience to disaster, we can really say we have a lot of catching up to do in our country,” he said.
