Over 100 LCEs to attend DILG reg’l summit on disaster preparedness
By Fayette C. Riñen
CEBU CITY, May 18 (PIA) -- Over 100 local chief executives from the different municipalities, cities, and provinces in Central Visayas are expected to attend the "Tapatan on Disaster Preparedness and Climate Change Adaptation: A Call To Action" summit in Cebu on May 25, spearheaded by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
DILG 7 Regional Director Ananias M. Villacorta bared the activity, which serves as their agency’s response to the clamor from different sectors of society to strengthen the disaster preparedness efforts of local government units (LGUs) following the occurrence of various calamities in many parts of the country.
Villacorta added the activity is also in line with RA 10121 or the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 and RA 9729, otherwise known as the Climate Change Adaptation Act of 2009.
Apart from the local chief executives of the 136 provinces, cities and municipalities in Central Visayas to include the Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Officers, targeted participants included representatives from the DRRM-CCA partner regional line agencies, civil society organizations, private companies engaged in disaster-related corporate social responsibility projects, leaders of communities at risks, media, and the agencies under the DILG 7.
The summit is the second of a series of summits to be conducted in the Central Visayas Region on May 25, with the Cebu International Convention Center in Mandaue City as the venue.
The Tapatan on Disaster Preparedness is an offshoot of the success of the series of Tapatan activities last year focusing on the Full Disclosure Policy requiring LGUs to make public pertinent financial information.
DILG Secretary Jesse M. Robredo said the “Tapatan Roadshow” aims to increase the level of public awareness on potential and actual dangers and risks; understanding or knowledge about the dangers or risks that people face; public acceptance of the facts and realities about real threats and empower people to confront disaster when it happens; and, public involvement, thereby moving people from inaction to action, from callousness to sensitivity, from being passive to being active and from being mere witness to active participant.
“We want to develop a culture of preparedness among LGUs and the public so that the country would be able to respond more effectively and mitigate the adverse impacts of every disaster that hits the country,” Robredo further said.
Highlight of the upcoming summit would be the signing of the Pledge of Commitment by the participants for disaster preparedness to manifest their firm resolve to put in place their local disaster risk reduction and management and climate change adaptation plans.
The DILG will be holding a series of regional summits aimed to promote advocacy on the institutionalization of disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation and mitigation among LGUs nationwide.
The Philippines has been ranked as the third among countries worldwide that are most at risk to disasters in 2011, according to the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security study. (PIA7, Cebu)
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“Lapis ug Papel” tutorial program set in Liloan
LILOAN, CEBU, May 18 (PIA) -- The Kool Adventure Camp (KAC) campers of Lilo-an National High School (LNHS) are currently conducting their “Lapis ug Papel Tutorial Program” in the sitios of Mahayahay II, Bonbon and Pamutungan in Lilo-an, Cebu.
The program's tutorial sessions started in April this year and will be conducted for two Saturdays each month until October this year.
More kids from the daycare centers in the sitios of Lilo-an, Cebu, are expected to benefit from the program as it targets another two sitios in the mountain areas of the town this year.
Records show there are around 900 daycare pupils who graduated from the yearly tutorial program of KAC in LNHS since the program was launched in 2007 in Sitio Mahayahay.
They organized this program as part of their community service after joining the camp.
“If they have sufficient funds this year, they really want to include two mountain sitios where tutorial is needed," said Gil Corbes, adviser of Kool Adventure Campers Club and values education teacher.
He added that if they can generate enough funds every year, the tutorial program will be replicated in more areas in Lilo-an.
Welson Mendez, one of the volunteers during the tutorial program, said the service he gives to his community is through his younger sister. He said that being one of the volunteer teachers, he also guides his younger sister in her preparatory schooling.
“I always motivate my younger sister to pursue and do best in schooling so she will be knowledgeable and will have a good future ahead,” said Mendez in Cebuano.
Mendez added that he is fulfilled in giving his time to teach reading, writing and arithmetic to the daycare pupils.
Members and club alumni are inviting their parents and siblings to join and volunteer for the program.
KAC is one of the programs under Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) Leadership & Citizenship focus area, where future leaders are nurtured to prepare them to take an active role in affecting change.
Since 1999, RAFI, a Cebu-based non-government organization, has organized more than 200 camps with 30 percent coming from public high schools, benefiting more than 2,000 students. (rmn/PIA-7/HFG/Mayette A. Baring/CNU Intern)