ROXAS City — In the midst of worsening typhoons, local government units should prioritize disaster risk reduction, Gov. Victor A. Tanco said.
In the Philippines, typhoons come one after the other and render local governments and disaster response units overworked and, sometimes, confused, according to the governor.
“You don’t know if you are in the preparatory stage (of disaster response), emergency stage or recovery/rehabilitation stage,” said Tanco.
He lamented that more typhoons bringing heavy rains hit Capiz while the province was still trying to fully recover from super typhoon “Yolanda.”
Tanco attended the Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Recovery Plan Implementation, Monitoring and Validation Forum of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery (OPARR) yesterday at the San Antonio Resort in Barangay Baybay here.
Aside from local government units, nongovernment organizations should also work to reduce risks during disasters, according to Tanco.
“What good the education, health and other projects are if no one is there to appreciate them?” said the governor.
As for Capiz, its post-“Yolanda” rehabilitation and recovery plan had already been submitted to the OPARR in July last year.
Tanco hopes that all OPARR-approved projects, programs and activities will be implemented this year “so we can erase ‘Yolanda’ from our memories and [focus] on other typhoons that will come.”
Some of the items under the province’s rehabilitation and recovery plan, including the shelter aid under the Department of Social Welfare and Development and infrastructure projects under the Department of Public Works and Highways, were already being implemented, he said.
“We are now building a new Capiz — a Capiz that will rise from the ashes of ‘Yolanda,’” the governor stressed. (PN/RALPH JOHN MIJARES)
