City disaster council maps out measures

CEBU, Philippines — Even without the declaration of the state of preparedness yet, the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Council has already mapped out some measures to address the possible extreme heat condition this summer.

CCDRRMC Chairman Ramil Ayuman told The Freeman yesterday that the council will submitting it's final recommendation for the declaration of the state of preparedness next month as it would depend on the weather bureau's forecast.

“Among e-submit first week of April..Importante and sa PAG-ASA (advisory)," Ayuman said.

Ayuman, however, said the council has been monitoring in the heat situation together with the Metropolitan Cebu Water District.

Next week, the City Government will also pre-position the new firetrucks/water tankers in the mountain barangays to be able to respond to bush and forest fires, at the same time, be able to help farmers and residents in case there will be shortage of water.

There is also at least two existing firetrucks on standby right now in the upland area.

The CCDRRMC and the Cebu City Risk Reduction and Management Office (CCDRRMO)  are also set to conduct training to selected individuals in 27 mountain barangays next month. It will kick off in Barangay Pamutan where most of the grass and forest fire incidents happened last year.

The training of responders in the mountain barangays will be divided into four sectors—South, North 1 and 2, and Central.

Under the South Sector are Sudlon 1 and 2, Bonbon, Sinsin, Buot-Taop, Sapangdaku, Toong, and Buhisan, while the Central side will have Taptap, Tabunan, Tagbao, Babag, Budlaan, Busay, Malubog, Pung-ol, Sirao and Kalunasan.

North 1 will have Adlaon, Llusaran, Cambinocot, Asungot, Paril, Guba and Mabini, while North 2 will have Pulangbato,  Binaliw, Pit-os, San Jose and Bacayan.

The training will take place for three days afterwhich they will be partnering with assigned forest rangers from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Prior to the start of the training on April 2, there will be a coordination meeting with the barangay officials, and disaster heads this week, Ayuman said. — JG (FREEMAN)