“Risk reduction is the concrete translation of precautionary principle,” Cervantes told 60 local officials in a two-day conference on DRR orientation that ended last August 11 at Ma. Cristina Hotel of Iligan.

The training, initiated in partnership with London-based Catholic Fund for Overseas Development (Cafod), was attended by 60 participants from disaster-prone areas of Kolambugan, Naawan, Nunungan and Poona Piagapo of Lanao del Norte and from Josefina of Zamboanga del Sur.

“The landmark agreement that is pushing countries and communities to reduce risks of disasters is the UN’s International Strategy for Disaster Reduction’s Hyogo Framework for Action (2005-2015):  Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities which was signed by 168 countries including Philippines,” Cervantes said.

“The HFA stresses that nations and communities needs to ensure that disaster risk reduction is a national and a local priority with strong basis for implementation; identify, assess and monitor disaster risk and enhance early warning; use knowledge, innovation and education to build a culture of safety and resilience at all levels; reduce the underlying risk factor and strengthen disaster preparedness for effective response at all levels,” he further explained.

Regina Antequisa, executive director of Ecoweb Inc. based in Iligan, said “DRR aimed at sharing greater understanding of the international framework of disaster risk reduction; identify cost-effective way of addressing disasters and mainstreaming this in the development plans of affected towns.”

Participants had workshops, case studies and inputs on food security and climate change.

Antequisa said that “people can have a shift of thought from disaster management to reduction of risks before an occurrence of an event.”

In that conference, participants  looked at experiences of other countries and how they managed to survive from perils.

Director Carmelito Lupo of the Office of the Civil Defense in Region X lectured on the status on the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) and Disaster Risk Reduction in the Philippines.

“Even the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) is now being defined by the UN agencies from the DRR perspective.  Their thesis is that the MDG will never be attained unless disaster risk is addressed,” Cervantes stressed.

 Greg Tabanag, municipal economic enterprise development office of Kolambugan town, a conflict-affected town in Lanao Norte, said “we wish to incorporate DRR in our comprehensive planning specially that we have disaster-prone areas. We will make sure that we will be given in a regular budget aside from the calamity fund so that whatever will happen, we can ensure sustainability as we confront this age with issues on climate change.”

“We hope that we will be able to pass this as legacy to our future children because in the past, there have been many lives wasted,” he added.

Salvador Alomine, municipal peace and development council officer (MPDC) of Naawan, Misamis Oriental said “we will endeavor to incorporate the comprehensive development plans and hope that our municipal mayor will support this. We have experiencing flood for the past years and long drought in 1983. Our weather is very unpredictable, thus risk reduction from calamities should be given focused.”

Abdul Manamparan, a local government official of Nunungan of Lanao del Norte affirmed the need to inculcate conflict management as armed conflict have cause death tools in our community and “we hope to partner with institutions that has  expertise on peacebuilding,”

Musa Tiboron, barangay chair of Nunungan of Poona Piagapo, Lanao del Norte, expressed gratitude to institutions who have assisted them in their resettlement and in the provision of medication for our ailing children and “hope that we will be able to foster more dialogues in our communities.”

Maria Fe Pitogo, mayor of Josefina town in Zamboanga del Sur said “we are happy that we are able to undergo this kind of training because we’re more aware now of what directions to go thru. We will integrate DRR in our municipal plan to ably address concerns both man-made and natural calamities that may hit our town.”

Iligan city councilor Orlando Maglinao said that “it’s always good to be prepared to eventualities and have a thorough potential problem analysis to enable a pro-active and preventive measures or respond to issues than be reactive when disasters happen because we can never tell exactly the behavior of nature.” (Violeta M. Gloria/MindaNews)

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