Caraga lacks contingency plan for disasters

BUTUAN CITY, Philippines – The Caraga region – comprised of six cities and 67 municipalities in five provinces – has no comprehensive contingency plan to deal with natural disasters like earthquakes – where people will go if massive evacuation occurs, the availability of standby power generation sets if disaster strikes at night, and search and rescue units.

Blanche Gobenciong, regional director of the Office of the Civil Defense (OCD), admitted that almost all local government units (LGUs) in Caraga have no inventory of existing standby power generators.

This, as the Philippine Fault Line traverses the Caraga region, hitting mostly populated areas, rivers and coastlines.

“Under a supposed earthquake contingency plan, the LGUs are trained in how to organize emergency response teams, what places are safe and where to evacuate, how to tap standby power generation sets, whom to call for immediate rescue and response, and where to bring the wounded and casualties, if there are any,” Gobenciong said.

With the OCD-Caraga office having only four personnel, Gobenciong cited the need for cooperation among her agency, the LGUs, the other government agencies and the private sector in establishing a comprehensive contingency plan for natural disasters like earthquakes, flooding and landslides.

Gobenciong though said the region is prepared for small to medium-scale flooding, as it has experienced in the past, but not for flooding on a regionwide-scale.

Gobenciong said her agency and the regional office of the Department of Education have conducted many earthquake drills in mostly urban schools.

“But I admit this is not enough as there is really a dire need for drills on the barangay level, especially in populated villages located within the fault line zone,” she said.

Gobenciong admitted that until now they are working with other government agencies on disaster risk reduction.

The Caraga region is composed of the provinces of Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, and Dinagat Islands.