DBantayan reactivates disaster

In the aftermath of the devastation of Typhoon Frank over Daanbantayan last month, the municipal government announced that it has reorganized and reactivated its municipal disaster coordinating council.

Daanbantayan municipal information officer Gregg M. Rubio, in a press release issued to The FREEMAN recently, said that municipal operation officer Abraham Donaldo had presented a new organizational structure of the council during the meeting called by Daanbantayan Mayor Sun Shimura.

The structure of the disaster coordinating council is usually based on a pattern set for each local government unit by the Office of Civil Defense, with the mayor as chairman and the chief of police, the vice-chairman.

Donaldo proposed a change particularly on the vice-chairmanship. He said that, considering that the police chief is always subject for transfer from one station to the other, it would be better to name Vice Mayor Maria Luisa Loot as vice chairperson of the council in lieu of Insp. Bonifacio Arriesgado, the town police chief.

Donaldo later discussed the functions of the committee on mitigation and preparedness, to work before a looming emergency, and of the committees on response, and on rehabilitation, after a disaster.

Donaldo further gained approval for a monthly meeting of the council. He is now visiting every barangay for the activation of the barangay disaster coordinating councils.  — Joy Kareen T. Saliente/RAE