Angara urges telcos to prepare disaster plans

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Edgardo Angara urged telecommunications providers yesterday to draw up disaster management plans and ensure that their information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure are resilient against natural calamities.

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology cited a recent survey in Luxembourg showing nearly half of Philippine-based respondents do not have disaster recovery plans for ICT systems.

“Real-time communication is an asset during large-scale calamities, such as typhoon ‘Sendong’,” he said.

“We enhance our abilities in managing disasters when we make sure that in the face of any disruption, our telecommunications services are resilient and quick to go back online.”

Angara said the Regus survey found that 48 percent of respondents in the Philippines do not have an IT system recovery plan to ensure that systems would be running within 24 hours of a disaster.

“If some of our telcos have yet to incorporate disaster resilience into their operations, then now is not the time for them to take a wait-and-see attitude,” he said.

“The extensive devastation caused by recent floods only tells us that we can never be too prepared for natural disasters.”

Angara, who is also chairman of the Congressional Commission on Science, Technology and Engineering (COMSTE), said the survey result is three points higher than the global average of 45 percent.

 “Various sectors of society ought to work together, especially in cultivating the knowledge necessary not just in responding to disasters, but also in reducing our risk and vulnerabilities,” he said.

COMSTE has been pushing for the deployment of an innovation cluster – a public-private partnership among government, the academe and the private sector that will conduct research into the development of technologies useful in Disaster Science and Management.

Around P60 million has been allocated in the 2012 budget for the creation of the cluster, Angara said.

Free text

Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo asked yesterday to the country’s top telecommunications firms to extend free text and call services for the next 15 days in areas badly hit by tropical storm Sendong.

Meanwhile, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said the House of Representatives will continue to find ways to help in the long-term rehabilitation of storm-hit communities.

Earlier, Belmonte spearheaded the donation of P20,000 from each of the 284 lawmakers as contribution for the relief efforts and called for the donation of P1 million from their Priority Development Assistance Fund to finance long term rehabilitation projects.

The donations would be directly given to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Belmonte said.

Castelo said the extension of free text in those areas during the national emergency could save lives, minimize danger, and lead to better evacuation and relief operations.

“The automatic extension of free texts and calls to their subscribers could ease the pain and anguish brought by losses in lives, crops, livestock, and property,” he said.

“Wireless service subscribers have difficulties, albeit limited means, time, and opportunity, to purchase loads.”

Castelo said telecommunications firms like PLDT and Globe are an “integral part” of the national disaster management plan and their participation is “extremely vital” during disasters and national emergencies.

“These telecommunications firms have to return a portion of their earnings to the communities they have been serving in the form of free text and call services during emergency situations,” he said.

Earlier, Representatives Juan Edgardo Angara of Aurora and Ted Haresco of Ang Kasangga urged the DSWD to include victims of Sendong in its conditional cash transfer program. – Christina Mendez, Paolo Romero