Philippines: From a distance - opinion
Reflecting on survey results indicating that too few Local Government Units (LGUs) are familiar with their DRR laws, Attorney Gloria Estenzo Ramos of the Cebu Daily writes, while the result of the survey was not representative of the actual state of preparedness of our LGUs, it gave us a glimpse of the urgent steps needed to mainstream DRRM in the policies, plans, projects and program of the government. One such measure is capacity building trainings of stakeholders.
She asks: "Do we just leave everything to chance, to the 'Bahala na' mentality or comply with our climate and DRRM laws, encourage the involvement of our people and partner with NGOs and stakeholders, as exemplified by the municipality of San Francisco in Cebu, the 2011 UN Sasakawa awardee for Disaster Risk Reduction?"