The Regional Disaster
Risk Reduction and Management Council (RDRRMC) CALABARZON discussed its
emergency preparedness measures for the upcoming Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan
Elections 2018 through a Pre-disaster Risk Assessment Meeting held on 02 May
2018 at the OCD-RDRRMC Operations Center, Calamba City, Laguna.
Based on the 2016
Voter Statistics from COMELEC, the CALABARZON region has the largest voting
population in the country with 7.6 million registered voters and highest voter
turnout in 2016 with 5.9 million or 77.8%.
Given the volume of
voters expected to flock in various precincts and the influx of people
returning to their home towns to exercise their right to suffrage, Office of
Civil Defense (OCD) CALABARZON, as the RDRRMC CALABARZON’s Chair and
Secretariat, highlighted the importance of anticipating and preparing for any
possible emergencies that may arise in relation with the election period.
To determine the
possible hazards that the RDRRMC response agencies and CALABARZON Local DRRM
Councils (LDRRMC) should prepare for, a threat and risk assessment particularly
on human-induced hazards that could affect the elections was discussed by the
NICA IV and PNP CALABARZON.
The five CALABARZON
Provincial DRRM Offices (PDRRMO) and RDRRMC agencies such as DILG IV-A, DSWD
IV-A, DOH IV-A, PCG STL, DPWH IV-A, and PIA IV-A then reported their respective
office’s preparedness measures for various emergencies that may be caused by
natural hazards, medical emergencies, disruption in peace and order incidents,
vehicular accidents, and other possible human-induced hazards.
OCD CALABARZON also
emphasized the need to preposition emergency responders and equipment such as
emergency medical teams, fire suppression teams, search and rescue teams,
communications teams, and power generators near identified hotspots as part of
the DRRM Councils’ consequence management support to PNP’s security and peace
and order operations during the election period.
The RDRRMC CALABARZON
Emergency Operations Center (EOC) will be activated and will be raised to BLUE
ALERT status on 11-15 May 2018 to closely monitor its area of responsibility
for situational updates and untoward incidents, and to readily provide possible
augmentation to LDRRMCs as necessary.
A related RDRRMC
memorandum was disseminated on 20 April 2018 to all CALABARZON LDRRMCs
requesting them to similarly activate their EOCs and to place their emergency
response resources on standby alert status on 11-15 May 2018.
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