Liliw and Luisiana gear up for institutionalizing barangay community disaster volunteers and emergency response teams

June 9, 2017

With the commitment to help contribute to resilience and mitigate risks in their respective communities, 71 participants from Liliw and Luisiana, Laguna conducted a writeshop to institutionalize, through an ordinance, community disaster volunteers and emergency response teams. The writeshop was held on May 30, 2017 at Siesta Casa Dhesenza, Liliw, Laguna. Organized by the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development (PLCPD) with the support of World Food Programme-Philippines (WFP), the writeshop was assisted by respective Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (MDRRM) officers of Liliw and Luisiana.

In the opening message of Liliw Vice Mayor Pablo Orioste, he underscored the importance of disaster preparedness and prevention and reminded the participants to take these matters seriously as most of their barangays are prone to landslide and flashfloods. Topics covered in the morning session included the policy environment, legal mandates, and other instruments as legal bases in the development of local policy measures such as a municipal ordinance.

In the afternoon session, Liliw Mayor Ericsson Sulibit gave a message. He mentioned that disaster risk reduction and management must be part of governance of the municipality. Through his leadership, disaster management became an integral part of Liliw’s developmental programs citing the Mayor’s Action Team or MAT, which provides services to their constituents 24/7.

The participants then discussed the draft municipal ordinance, particularly concerns important provisions such as funding, roles and function of community disaster volunteers and emergency response teams.

By the end of the session, an enhanced draft municipal ordinance was presented in plenary by two workshop groups with action plans to transmit the copies to their respective sanggunians.

“We need to do something for our vulnerable population to be free from threats, from hazard detection to community response” Luisiana Vice Mayor Luibic Jacob emphasized in his closing remarks.