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MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews/01 June) – Bukidnon’s recurring dengue outbreaks have been blamed on the lack of a disaster preparedness plan that specifically deals with the mosquito-borne viral disease.
The provincial board, in a resolution, cited the deficiency on top of the absence of a Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Plan for 2011 even as the first half of the year is about to end.
The same resolution asked the Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (LDRRMO) of the province to prepare and submit to the provincial board such plan.
But the provincial board also wanted the LDRRMO to include “a specialized plan to address the possible recurrence of dengue outbreak in the province.”
Board member Jay Albarece said the province was about to declare a state of calamity in 2010 in response to the dengue problem but that the board encountered “inconsistencies in data as to the true extent of the outbreak”.
“It was reported that there were as many as 1,670 dengue cases resulting in 19 deaths in the province from January to September 21 in 2010 due to the outbreak of dengue, which figures are way above the 299 cases and three deaths in 2009 and 108 cases and zero death in 2008,” Albarece pointed out.
Republic Act No. 10121 or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010, mandates the LDRRMOs to prepare annual disaster preparedness plans for the approval of their respective legislative councils. (Walter I. Balane/MindaNews)