Sorsogon team visits Sarangani

ALABEL, Sarangani (September 30, 2009) - The Provincial Readiness to Institutionalize and Mainstream Risk Reduction (PRIMRR) project team and the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council (PDCC) members from the Province of Sorsogon visited Sarangani Province on Tuesday (September 29) to exchange learnings and best practices in reducing disaster risk.

The visit was timely as typhoon Ondoy left tremendous impact as it hit several areas in the country recently.

Sorsogon Governor Sally Lee, who headed the delegation from her province, found the activity worthwhile for the purpose of learning on how the implementation of PRIMRR project was done in Sarangani."

It's really a challenge for us how and why other provinces like Sarangani were very successful in this kind of project. We are very passionate about this," Lee said.

She added that through the activity, her team would able to learn more through examples and could implement these new learnings on PRIMRR in her province.

Lee said PRIMRR project was adopted by Sorsogon considering that the province is "vulnerable to disaster (flood, volcanic eruption, typhoon, and others)".

Sarangani Governor Migs Dominguez, on the other hand, noted that e visit, a lot of learnings from each province are reaped by leaders in order for them to reduce disaster risk in their respective areas.

"It's a good thing that governors and mayors should discuss matters on how to reduce disaster risk," Dominguez said.

He noted that disaster and development is connected with each other."We Filipinos always come together in times of crisis and, we in the government are really a source of hope for the people. We, in this institution, must exert effort to inform people. Our biggest responsibility is to make sure that the awareness must be disseminated down the line," the governor said.

PRIMRR project was organized by Oxfam (Oxford Famine), an international organization, and was adopted by Sarangani Province in 1995, said Hermelo Latoja, chair of Sarangani PDCC.

"Every year, we craft our Integrated Disaster Plan and we do monthly outreach to most affected communities," he said.Latoja said that Sarangani, which piloted PRIMRR in the country, was awarded last year as Gawad Kalasag Best Prepared PDCC in the regional and national levels.

"Aside from Sarangani, there are only two provinces now who adopted the project, Sorsogon and Pampanga. We are still inviting other provinces to implement the project in their area," he said.

This year, Latoja said PDCC had a budget allocation of P140,000 for early warning devices which are installed in the province's most critical areas.

Last week, members of PDCC and PRIMRR project team of Sarangani went to Pampanga for an exchange of experience and best practices.

Latoja said such activity was useful in order for the leaders to know the strategies of other provinces in implementing the same project.

Meanwhile, after some presentations on the initiatives of the PDCC in Sarangani, which was delivered by Latoja, Governor Lee stressed that the best practices of the province in the implementation of PRIMRR project "should be replicated" by Sorsogon.

The delegation from Sorsogon also toured the Capitol compound particularly at the Environment Conservation and Protection Center, Disaster Management Office, Sarangani Lingap Center, Sarangani Livelihood and Learning Center and the municipalities of the province. (Joy Sevilla/SARANGANI INFORMATION OFFICE)