EDITORIAL - Retain, institutionalize, and expand the EOC

Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera wants the city’s Emergency Operations Center to be institutionalized as an independent and permanent body.

“I ask from this august body some due consideration that this ordinance be given priority so that the EOC may continue to assist this city and be institutionalized as an independent and permanent body,” said Councilor Garganera, who also happens to be the deputy chief implementer of the EOC.

This is a good idea. We say it is about time the city establish a permanent body to specialize in emergency situations. While the EOC was formed in response to this global pandemic, disasters like this only occur once every hundred years on the average. But other kinds of disasters occur more frequently.

Institutionalizing the EOC is a good move, but its role should also be expanded to be able to respond to or handle different types of emergencies or situations. Of course, we are talking about what happens after fires, floods, typhoons, and other large-scale natural or even man-made disasters.

Among other things, that body can be tasked with taking care of displaced victims of a disaster, managing evacuation centers, and providing them basic needs for a set amount of time.

Having something like this will assist or even fully take the pressure off barangays or government agencies that may have their hands full.

However permanent it is, it should also be flexible enough to be scaled down --but not necessarily totally deactivated-- during the times it is not needed. While this may not be ideal, we all know we don’t have limitless resources.

If there is one thing we have learned from the different disasters that frequently visit us it’s that we don’t seem to have learned anything. It’s almost as if we keep making the same mistakes and encountering the same situations, shortages, and problems when it comes to taking care of those who have been left hurt or homeless.

Having a permanent body to deal with these kind of situations may change this.