DTI facilitates back to back skills training in
Siargao Island
By Susil D. Ragas
SURIGAO CITY, Surigao del Norte, Jan. 4 (PIA) – The
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) recently facilitated a simultaneous
Cocosugar Production Skills Training and Training on Seashells Craft Making cum
Packaging and Labeling in Barangay Don Paulino in Dapa town, Siargao Island.
According to DTI Trade and Industry Development
Specialist Ninebeth A. Romo-Balighot, the activity, which was participated by
identified women group/association in the locality, aimed to develop and
enhance the skills of the women in making cocosugar and shell craft products.
Balighot said the Sta. Fe Women Association and Don
Paulino Craft-Makers Association are both recipients of the Bottom-up-Budgeting
(BuB) Program funded by the DTI.
She said beneficiaries were provided with the
starter kits and expected to continually process and produce their respective
products then initially sell them in the locality for the locals and tourists.
Balighot further said that BuB program aims to
increase beneficiaries’ household income and reduce poverty in the locality
through sustainable economic activities.
“There are still upcoming BuB projects to be
conducted and implemented in Siargao Island for the year 2017, such as skills
and entrepreneurial trainings, capability building and provision of starter
kits,” Balighot added. (DTI-SDN/PIA-Surigao del Norte)
News
Feature: PDRRMC Agusan del Norte achieves 2016 target
By Nora
C. Lanuza Molde
BUTUAN
CITY, Jan. 4 (PIA) - Agusan del Norte is not among the top ten provinces prone
to devastating disasters. Typhoons seldom occur in the province but when it
strikes Northern Mindanao especially in the neighboring provinces, it causes
the Agusan River bank and other nine rivers within the province to overflow
which results to flash floods.
The
lessons learned from the past disasters became the province's drive to exert
efforts in ensuring that our communities will be well prepared and
disaster-resilient. As mandated by Republic Act 10121 also known as the
Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction, the province headed by governor Ma.
Angelica Rosedell M. Amante-Matba continued to adopt a disaster risk reduction
and management approach that is proactive in lessening the socio-economic and
environment impacts of disaster and promotes the involvement and participation
of all sectors and all stakeholders at all levels to specifically respond to
the different aspects involved in disaster risk management.
For
the year 2016, the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council
(PDRRMC) of Agusan del Norte has successfully achieved its targeted goals and
earned commendable accomplishments in the implementation its plans and programs
geared towards a disaster resilient communities.
PDRRMO
officer Erma Suyo said, the achievements and awards could not be possible
without the support from the municipal DRRMCs, partner government agencies,
civil society organizations (CSOs), non-government organizations (NGOs) and
other support groups such as the Philippine National Police (PNP) and
Philippine Army.
Among
the notable 2016 accomplishments that the PDRRMC has achieved are as follows:
ON
DISASTER PREVENTION AND MITIGATION
A
risk financing mechanism was implemented together with the Philippine Crop
Insurance Corporation (PCIC) with a total of 375 farmers now insured, having
374.75 hectares of rice land and 54 herds livestock amounting to P630,974.57.
The initiative was realized due to the council’s recognition that disasters can
cause not only loss of lives and damage to properties but also impairing economic
activity of the affected community.
Environmental
Management. Due to the council’s acknowledgment on the importance and
protection of the environment and natural resources and to avoid degradation
and combat the effects of climate change, the council through its PDRRMO
facilitated a tree growing activity at Libas Relocation Site during the Araw ng
Agusan del Norte that was participated by the provincial employees.
Infrastructure
Resilience. To have a resilient infrastructure, a construction of Slope Protection
Project was also completed at Brgy. Lapucon in the municipality of Kitcharao.
ON
DISASTER PREPAREDNESS
Development
and Establishment of DRR Database. A risk profile was made through the
facilitation of the staff from Center for Disaster Preparedness (CDP), which is
part of the formulation of the Provincial DRRM Plan CY 2017-2021. Five
municipalities participated in the risk profiling namely: Cabadbaran City,
Jabonga, Carmen, Magallanes and Las Nieves.
The
PDRRMO through the Training Section has started to establish the database on
trained responders, with around 50 percent completion.
For
2017, PDRRMO also proposed to develop a Provincial DRRM Database by employing
enumerators to do data field collection to 11 component LGUs of the province.
This initiative will result to having a web-based DRRM information system in
the future.
Provincial
DRRM Plan. The formulation of the Provincial DRRM Plan CY 2017-2021 also
started with a Training Needs Assessment (TNA) and Scoping Report Validation
Activity last December of 2015.
As a
result of the TNA, series of leveling off activities were conducted by the CDP
on March 2016, which leads to DRRM Planning Workshop on May and Writeshop on
June 2016. These results to 90 percent completion of the DRRM plan with some
data needed to be collected from the remaining LGUs who have not participated
in the process.
Contingency
Plan. A Contingency Plan formulation workshop was also conducted on October
18-21, 2016 and was facilitated by the OCD. The result of the workshop is a
draft Contingency Plan for Typhoon, which leads to the conduct of series of
cluster meetings to finalize the cluster, plans which are the main component of
the Contingency Plan. As of the moment, a 50 percent completion on the said
plan is waiting for the finalization of the cluster plans by the different
cluster lead agencies and offices of the province.
In
support to other LGUs, the council through PDRRMO sent staffs to facilitate
Brgy. Contingency Planning Workshop for the 19 Barangays of the municipality of
Nasipit.
Also,
the PDRRMC provided support to the various DRR-CCA programs to include the
institutionalization of the YOUNG-ADNERT (Youth Operative in Urgency Nurturing
Goodwill – Agusan del Norte Emergency Response Team). On April 14-16, 2016 at
CSU Cabadbaran campus, the YOUNG ADNERT has established province-wide set of
officers having Ms. Franchettee Marie Adlao as the federation president.
During
the observance of the National Disaster Consciousness Month last July, a Youth
Forum held at Provincial Training Center was conducted and was attended by the
YOUNG ADNERT members coming from the different schools in the province.
Aside
from that, a Province-wide Quiz Bee and DRR Short 'Film Making Contest were
also conducted which was participated by 35 participating schools for the Quiz
Bee and 12 participating schools for the Short Film Making. This endeavor is in
partnership with Department of Education - Division of Agusan del Norte and
Cabadbaran City Division.
Trainings.
A CBDRRM Training of Trainers (TOT) was also conducted for NSTP students of
Agusan del Norte as well as the School DRRM Coordinators. All the trained
students and teachers will be part of the pool of trainers as additional
workforce of Agusan del Norte PDRRMC in conducting CBDRRM to the secondary
schools as well as to different communities within the province.
Another
CBDRRM TOT was conducted in partnership with PhilDHRRA last September to
October at Amontay Beach Resort in Nasipit and was participated by five
barangays coming from the municipalities of Las Nieves and RTR. These barangay
officials and community volunteers will now be hands on in capacitating their
respective barangays while having opportunities to be of help to other
neighboring barangays in ensuring that no community will be left behind in DRRM
capacity enhancement.
Also,
the Provincial CBDRRM Training Team together with the trained NSTP students
went hand in hand in conducting CBDRRMP to the high-risk barangays such as:
Brgy. San Roque, Kitcharao; Host barangays of Agata Mining Ventures, Inc.
(AMVI); Paz Y Desarrollo beneficiary barangay; and Social Action for Justice
and Peace beneficiary barangay.
A
Bansay-13 Project also initiated the first activity, which is the conduct of
CBDRRM, which were participated by the community representatives from Brgy.
Mat-i, Brgy. Poblacion and Brgy. San Roque. The conduct of this CBDRRM is in
partnership with PhilDHRRA who handled the documentation of the said activity.
Those community volunteers from Las Nieves who underwent CBDRRM TOT were now
being tapped as one of the facilitators and were given modules for discussion,
which were then being monitored by the Provincial and Municipal CBDRRM
trainers. The Bansay-13 Project is a convergence of 13-riverside barangays of
the municipality of Las Nieves.
Institutionalization
of Incident Command System. The province initiated the conduct of clustered ICS
training in order to organize the Local DRRMCs in handling disaster response
with coordinated actions with different groups. Applying ICS at all levels will
help the province in avoiding the same mistakes did in the past incidents.
In 2016,
the council institutionalized the Incident Command System to the barangay level
through the conduct of ICS Executive Course for all brgy. Captains and kagawad,
which was held, last March 18 at Provincial Training Center with attendance of
71 participants from different LGUs of the province.
The
council also realized the importance of having another set of Provincial
Incident Management Team (IMT) in order to support the first batch of IMT.
Therefore, the Basic ICS Training was conducted for ADNERT and PDRRMC members
and was followed by 29th Infantry Battalion’s training on Map Reading and Land
Navigation all for IMT members. Basic ICS training was conducted also for PNP
Special Action Force at Santiago in order for them to have basic orientation on
how they as a group would blend into an ICS organization whenever they will be
deployed to an incident.
For
the first batch of Provincial IMT, they conducted their Team Building and Table
Top Exercise in order to review their functional responsibilities on various
positions as well as enhance teamwork within an IMT organization.
One
of the most important things that the Council is trying to do is to incorporate
awareness messages across all programs to ensure that communities, public and
private institutions are aware of their risks and understand that there are
ways to protect themselves.
The
PDRRMC is an active partner in conducting fire and earthquake drills and
simulations to municipal LGUs, line agencies, business establishments and
schools within the province. In the relevant year, the province supported the
conduct of Quarterly National Simultaneous Earthquake Drills into different
ceremonial sites such as Santiago Municipal Hall, Buenavista Municipal Hall,
DPWH Agusan del Norte and Provincial Health Office respectively.
Another
drill called flood drill was also conducted at Brgy. La Paz, Santiago that was
participated by the barangay council and community members of La Paz. Bomb
Threat Awareness and Drill was also being performed in the Provincial Capitol
through the PNP Bomb Squad of the province.
Just
recently, the 4th Province-wide Rescue Exercise was conducted and attended by
10 participating teams of YOUNG ADNERT and four teams from partner line
agencies. These annually conducted activity aimed to hone the skills and
enhance the rescue capabilities of all trained response teams, YOUNG ADNERT
members and partner agencies by comparing and competing with others and
established rapport and camaraderie.
Search
for Disaster Resilient LGUs (Localized Gawad Kalasag). Another initiative of
the PDRRMC is the facilitation of the Search for Disaster Resilient LGUs dubbed
as Localized Gawad Kalasag. For year 2016, the participating entries were as
follows: (Municipal Category) – Las Nieves (who got Silver), Cabadbaran City
(who got Silver), Carmen (who got Bronze) and Magallanes and Kitcharao (for
Citation); (Barangay Category) the Brgy. Bangayan, Kitcharao is the only
participating barangay which will also be awarded a Certificate of Citation;
and for the (School Category) the Santiago CES got the first place by default.
A Table Top and Field Validation was conducted on April to May 2016 while the
Awarding of Deserving Winners being part of the ANGELL awarding was moved to
January of 2017.
In
line with its vision for a disaster-prepared and responsive province with
sustained climate change resilient communities, the province conducted several
capacity trainings and DRR-CCA activities, as follows: The emergency responders
of the municipal LGUs were supported with capacity building programs such as
Basic Life Support, Standard First Aid and Mass Casualty Incident Management to
equip them with proper knowledge in responding emergency situations. This was
conducted to AMVI coastal barangays as well as to Cabadbaran District Hospital
Nurses; training for the Community Action for Disaster Response (CADRE) was
conducted on March to April by the instructors of Program for Enhancement of
Emergency Response (PEER) and was attended by a total of 30 responders coming
from the ADNERT and LGU emergency response teams.
The
province of Agusan del Norte is the first in the Caraga Region who had an MHPSS
pool of trainers.
In
order to support the component LGUs in their DRR activities, the provincial
training team facilitated the Rapid Damage and Needs Analysis (RDANA) Training
for the Municipal RDANA team of the municipality of Nasipit.
ON
DISASTER RESPONSE
The
PDRRMC Operation Center was activated and manned on a 24/7 basis when Tropical
Depression “Marce” crossed the province.
A
Pre-Disaster Risk Assessment was also made and ICS was activated by PDRRMC
chair governor Matba issuing public advisories in accordance with the
standardized protocols and ensuring public’s safety and immediate public
response. A standardized protocol in the submission of situational report has
been followed starting from the municipalities to the province then submitted
to OCD every eight hours as required was also maintained.
“The
province of Agusan del Norte continuously does the effort to be on the
forefront of advocacy to maximize its capacity towards disaster preparedness.
It is just hope that these communities be able to withstand the strongest winds
by working hand-in-hand in facing every trial and took the strength from each
other during the most challenging times,” Suyo said. (NCLM with reports from
PRDDMO Agusan del Norte/PIA-Agusan del Norte)
SurSur
reports zero firecracker-related cases
By
Nida Grace P. Barcena
TANDAG
CITY, Surigao del Sur, Jan. 4 (PIA) – No significant incidents caused by
firecrackers or stray bullets were recorded in the Adela Serra-Ty Memorial
Medical Center (ASTMMC) here during the holiday season.
According
to ASTMMC Information Officer Nelle Karl Roz, since Dec. 20, 2016 up to Jan. 2,
2017 no incidents of people killed or hurt due to firecrackers were recorded,
while they were on Code White Alert status.
Meanwhile,
Police Community Relations (PCR) Officer PCI Noel Naranjo of Surigao del Sur
Police Provincial Office also bared that no record of firecracker-related
injuries has been reported in the whole province during the holiday season.
PCI
Naranjo further said that the whole province of Surigao del Sur celebrated the
Christmas and New Year’s Eve peacefully with no untoward incident happen.
It
can be recalled that last 2014, as per DOH data, the province of Surigao del
Sur ranked as the most number of cases in firecracker-related injuries.
(PIA-Surigao del Sur)
