The Quezon City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (QC DRRMO) is urging all privately owned educational institutions within the city to create their own contingency plans and policies for calamities.
QC DRRMO chief Karl Michael Marasigan emphasized the importance of disaster preparedness in a speech during a symposium on instituting school-based Disaster Risk Reduction and Management leadership held last week at the QCX Experience Museum.
“It’s very important that we have organized people who will really dedicate themselves to disaster risk reduction and management. At least, we have a focal person or team that will plan and study the needs of their universities and schools, just like the DRRM offices that we have here in Quezon City in over 100 public schools,” Marasigan said.
The QC DRRMO head told school administrators and representatives during the symposium that in case “the big one” has happened, “we will be on our own within 72 hours.”
“As we have said, if the big one occurs, within 72 hours we will be on our own. We can’t just sit and wait. We have to be prepared. So, what we are doing now is we are offering the schools the services that we could to help them to make them resilient and capacitate themselves,” Marasigan explained.
Marasigan also said that the QC DRRMO fulfills its mandate to encourage the community, especially the schools, whether public or private, to integrate disaster risk reduction and management education, as stated in Republic Act 101211, also known as the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010.
