GKS evaluators laud the city’s disaster response system
The Gawad Kalasag Seal (GKS) evaluators lauded city’s disaster response system-Korona 911 during the conduct of regional GKS evaluation.
During the exit conference, City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (CDRRM) Officer Cyrus Jose Urbano said that their office’s initiative of having Korona-911 earned commendation from the Department of Social Welfare and Development Office (DSWDO) and Office of the Civil Defense (OCD).
According to Urbano, the two (2) regional offices stated that it is considered as city’s best practice because it’s the only catastrophe-related program in the region that had established and with active participation and strong partnership to other coordinating agencies like Philippine National Police (PNP), Philippine Red Cross (PRC) and other volunteer organizations. “Kita lang ang may disaster response nga may tight bond sa mga first responders kag bisan sin-o pa ang magpungko, magpadayon ang ila serbisyo”, Urbano added.
Despite of the appreciation, the CDRRM officer also acknowledged their vulnerable point that includes crafting of updated local climate adaptation plan that could be used for the next three years, implementation of Community Based Disaster Reduction Assessment (CDRA) and other plans that needs budgetary requirements all because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gawad Kalasag is a national-designed program that deals with the search for excellence in disaster preparedness and humanitarian assistance as a competition but now shifted to Gawad Kalasag Seal where contest is no longer applied. Hence, Local Government Units (LGUs) must first obtain the hallmark before it can be recognized as Gawad Kalasag recipient.
Though the feature of the program had been changed, however the criteria remained the same and LGUs will be evaluated based on four (4) thematic areas: Disaster Preparedness, Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, Disaster Response and Disaster Recovery and Rehabilitation.
Thus, the scoring will center on the following categories:
Beyond compliant – if the score is 2.5–3, a result that vying for national recommendation.
Fully compliant- 1.5 – 2.49
Partially compliant – below 1.5
Noncompliant – with a very low score
The evaluators consist of Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Social Welfare and Development Office (DSWDO), Office of the Civil Defense (OCD), Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and Department of Health (DOH).
Meanwhile, aside from disaster response, the CDRRMO is also looking forward to launch an in-house response team to serve the people 24/7.