‘One town, one evacuation center needed across the Philippines’

MANILA, Philippines — The government should pursue a “one town, one evacuation center” program that can withstand super typhoon winds and an intensity 8 earthquake as the country remains prone to natural disasters, Senate President pro-tempore Ralph Recto said over the weekend.

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has built 82 evacuation centers in 52 provinces and 55 more are underway, Recto noted as he suggested that the construction of places of refuge must be expanded to include municipalities and cities.

He also urged the DPWH to explore designs other than the limited-capacity dormitories it is building to include gymnasiums that can have multiple uses during ordinary days, but can be transformed into safe refuge for hundreds of people when disaster strikes.

The senator refiled a bill institutionalizing this kind of public infrastructure “which a country visited by two dozen typhoons a year, one that sits atop the volcanic ‘Ring of Fire,’ and whose cities are submerged during the monsoon months needs.”

As women, children and elderly comprise the bulk of those displaced by natural and man-made calamities, like fire, he said the “gyms-cum-evacuation centers” will be equipped with toilet facilities and a clinic area.

He said these centers can be designed to house town libraries, making them youth centers for study and play—“activities they (evacuees) can do even when they are temporarily displaced from their homes.”

He said government would have value-for-money in designing multi-use gyms, “that are not just for sports, but for disasters too” with easy-to-install modular cubicles for privacy.

The sports-cum-evacuation center, he explained, “addresses both the shortage of sports facilities in towns and the need for a disaster-resilient building people can seek shelter in during calamities.”

Such a multipurpose civic center can host day or night community events, but when calamity strikes, can take in evacuees, he said.

“But if there’s one reason why we should put them up is that they will prevent schools from becoming default evacuation sites during calamities, a practice which turns students into displaced persons, when their learning is disrupted,” Recto said.

In conflict areas, the “forced vacation” of children whose schools are used to house refugees “is coterminous with the length of fighting,” he lamented.

Recto said the gym-cum-evacuation center should serve as the office and equipment depot of the local disaster response and mitigation team.

He said the centers must be able to withstand 300 kilometer per hour winds and an intensity 8 earthquake.