DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 17 April) — Various government agencies will join forces in crafting a Mindanao Disaster Preparedness Plan that will provide an island-wide outlook for coordinated “planning, preparation, mitigation, recovery and rehabilitation efforts” during calamities among local government units, an official of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) said.
MinDA public relations head Adrian Tamayo said on Sunday that it is important to come out with a single plan since a disaster affecting one area will likely have an impact on other local governments in terms of public safety, economic recovery, and overall growth.
He said the plan is a joint project of MinDA with the Office of the Civil Defense and the National Risk Reduction and Management Council, in coordination with other government agencies including, among others, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Philippine National Police, and Armed Forces of the Philippines.
“The plan will take into huge consideration the regional and LGU plans in developing the Mindanao Plan,” he said.
Houses along the coast of Burgos town in Siargao Island were wiped out by the wrath of Typhoon Odette in this photo taken on Monday, 3 January 2022. Odette made landfall in Siargao on 16 December 2021. MIndaNews photo by ROEL CATOTO
He added that the plan would be used as a major reference for disaster preparation, response, recovery and rehabilitation.
“It is an effort to address the whole spectrum of disaster governance, from planning, preparation, mitigation, response, recovery and rehabilitation, in the wide array of continuous and unimpeded basic economic activities, logistics, transportation,” he said.
Tamayo explained that “any disaster has a face of its own” and its impact on communities is “more or less the same.”
“As to the details of which, it is one thing to be crafted but agencies of government are already in agreement that there is urgency to coordinate, integrate and harmonize our plans because what happens in one region affects another region,” he said. (Antonio L. Colina / MindaNews)
