bacanipauline-nstp-cwts-drr-blog

[bacanipauline-nstp-cwts-drr-blog]

Calling the Filipino Youth! Help save our country

Hi, Gals!

Welcome to my blog. I’ve created this to show you the the world you live in. No sugarcoats, just reality.

Let’s start small. This semester, a part of my lesson in NSTP (CWTS) is the Disaster Risk Reduction Management. As a module, we were asked to coordinate with our barangay to analyze the current situation of the community. So, let’s check what’s going on in our own barangay.

This is a picture of me in front of the Barangay Hall at Dapitan (1219 Navarra St, Sampaloc, Manila, 1008 Metro Manila).

Meet Kuya Amado Barles. He is the barangay tanod of barangay 471. Be sure to greet him when you see him, he’s a really nice guy.

Anyway, we went to this station to ask a few questions about the hazards, vulnerabilities, and capacities of the area. I’ve learned a bunch of things about this community.

Barangay 471 has a total population of 1,872 residents spread among the streets of Antonio, Asturias, Rosarito, Navarra, Juaning, Santander, and a part of Dapitan and Laon Laan. The barangay has a dangerous community setting because of the tightly-packed design of buildings. During fires, earthquakes, and others, the cause of damage (e.g. the fire and the collapsing of buildings) easily creates a domino effect on its neighboring areas. The barangay, primarily consisting both residents and students, are affected during calamities.

Some of the hazards that endanger them are super typhoons, floods, fires, and earthquakes. An unforgettable one was the tropical storm in 2009, Ondoy. Combined other extremes such as Bagyong Pedring, Quiel, and Sendong, they have estimated the total damages in Metro Manila to be 11 Billion Pesos. Also, as Manila, in general, is prone to flooding naturally due to its low location, and additionally due clogging, flooding is often encountered. They gather news from the announcements of higher ranking government officials, PAG-ASA, and PHIVOLCS. Their early warning system for their area are the following: a megaphone and a two-way radio for floods; a megaphone, a two-way radio, and the presence of RAHA fire volunteer for fires. When there are tyhoons, the barangay tanods monitor and roam their areas of jurisdiction.

The effects of the hazards are most felt by the residents because their permanent homes are affected. It can also take a toll on dorm-residing students because they are far from the comforts of home, and they are not familiar with their neighbors. Also, since Barangay 471 is known as semi-commercial area, the source of income of its residents are mostly from food stalls, commercial establishments, and transport services. Thus, disasters will also affect their sources of livelihood. It would take a while for street vendors to compensate for their losses, for the transport providers to have a good ground to travel on, and for commercial establishments to fix the damages brought upon their businesses. The barangay officials would also have a hard time reestablishing their barangay because of their limited personnel, only 25.

In times of calamity, the safest place to go is at open areas away from buildings, fences, walls, electricity poles, bridges, and trees. The riskiest place to be would be at areas surrounded by those mentioned previously. They have not specified a place that they go to during drills or calamity proper for safety. Some of the factors that prevent the barangay from recovering from the disasters that they encounter are: (1) lack of volunteers/initiatives, (2) lack of financial funding, (3) self-preservation habit, and (4) unpreparedness which increases their risk.

During times of disasters, the barangay follows a plan of action stated in writing. As soon as the disaster strikes, the Leader/Assistant Leader or any qualified member of the specialized services teams must stay at the Barangay Disaster Operations Center (BDOC). Their duties are to issue directives/orders to the field and to receive feedbacks from the field. Each specialized team must analyze all communications/reports sent out and/or received, determine the materials and human resources needed by those operating in the field, supervise the members of their respective team, and control operations (Brgy. Disaster Preparedness Vital Information, 2019). The Transportation and Communications Team must send a message to the next higher local authorities, informing them of the preparedness of the barangay, and follow-up this vital initial report with progress reports as needed. The BDOC must be mannered twenty-four hours a day and never for a minute must it be vacated by a staff of any service team to ensure proper coordination and smooth operations among the service teams. If possible, the BDOC must be located nearest the evacuation center or in the evacuation site itself, but separate from the evacuees. This must be so because operatonbs will be disorderly if there are many people milling around. All instruction must emanate from the BDCC Chairman and/or Action officer and likewise reports coming from the field must be directed to the BDOC for the Service Team Officers to act up (Brgy. Disaster Preparedness Vital Information, 2019).

To prevent disasters, the barangay have initiated some projects. For example, to lessen flooding, they have started a Weakly Clean-Up Drive, and a De-Clogging initiative. They have also allocated budget for calamities known as the Calamity Fund. 30% of this fund is used for the Quick Response Fund, used when the government announces a state of calamity in the area. It will be used to buy the needs of the victims. They also conduct earthquake drills in accordance with the Nationwide Simultaneous Earthquake Drill. Unfortunately though, only a few residents joined.

The Barangay Disaster Coordinating Council has an over-all Chairman, Osmundo J. Perez. They also have 8 Service Teams, namely Warning System Team, Rescue and Evacuation Service Team, Disaster and Supply Service Team, Medical Service Team, Fire Brigade Team, Damage Control Service Team, Security Service Team, and Transportation and Communication Team, each led by Kagawad Espera, Lorica, Regino, Rabe, Adalia, Espera, Rodriguez, and Calaiag, respectively. They also have special task forces per barangay, namely the Task Force on Fire Disaster, led by Kagawad  Adalia; Task Force on Typhoon Disaster, led by Kagawad  Lorcia; Task Force on Earthquake Disaster, led by Kagawad  Espera; and Task Force on Pandemic/Outbreak Disaster led by Kagawad  Rodriguez.

Here’s a picture of me and my friend as we take our Community Walk.

As I do this activity, I realize that some of the issues that confront the community are the unwillingness of the residents to join in preparation for disasters, the location of the community, and the lack of discipline in cleanliness. I think people are not dedicated in preparing for disasters because they lack the incentive. Even if they know that it is useful in saving their lives in case of an emergency, they might only see the near future in which they would rather work and collect pay for that day. Also, as have mentioned their buildings are too closely packed that it increases the risk of the hazards. And, lastly, it is evident that the streets of Manila have plenty of litters lying around. However, Mayor Isko have started issuing policies about trashes. Also, perhaps he can impose policies on how new buildings will be built, as he can’t change those that are already built, and provide incentives to motivate residents to join the seminars and drills.

To generalize this topic further, we can relate it to the nationwide disaster management status of the Philippines. Based on observations, the government is more focused on publicly displaying their efforts instead of making sure that these are of quality. Thus, the disaster management is more remedy-focused rather than prevention-focused. Although there are some programs directed towards preventing disasters, it is not very efficient. More resources are used to provide relief goods and damage controls. There is a need to address the issues of our country so that we can improve the disasters that we encounter. We pretty much have no say in the hazards that happen, but we can do so much to minimize the disasters that will happen. Addressing our issues will improve our country, and make it a more stable place for the Filipinos. It can save both our lives and our resources.

After the kwentuhan and community walk, I realized how important risk reduction management is. Manila is known as a city prone to hazards, particularly floods, and yet the people who are directly affected, the residents, are not doing enough to prevent this from occurring again and again. I think that people should care enough about their community, and not just themselves, to start an actual change.