OCD dispatches team to CARAGA

PAGADIAN CITY – A team from the Western Mindanao Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council has deployed a team of experts to the CARAGA region which was devastated by Super Typhoon Odette (Rai) to help assess the damage left behind by the calamity, especially in Surigao del Norte province and Dinagat Islands and formulate the rehabilitation and recovery programs.

Members of the team from the Western Mindanao Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council are deployed in CARAGA region to help assess the damage left behind by the calamity, especially in Surigao del Norte province and Dinagat Islands.

The team, led by Elmer Pabilan, the Assistant Chief of the Rehabilitation and Recovery Management Section of the Office of the Civil Defence in Western Mindanao, is composed of personnel from the following the National Economic and Development Authority, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, Department of Agriculture, Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Technical Education And Skills Development Authority, Center for Disaster Preparedness, Zamboanga del Sur Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, and Zamboanga del Norte’s Salug and Liloy Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Offices. 

Lawyer Ruel Halanes, OCD Western Mindanao Officer-in-Charge, said the team will stay in CARAGA until the end of the month. He said the OCD also provided the team with various supplies such as cell phone cards, bags, tumblers, hammocks, sleeping bags, rain suits, portable stoves, medicines, survival kits and a generator set. 

“Post-disaster needs assessment is a multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary structured approach for assessing disaster impacts and prioritizing recovery and reconstruction needs. It is undertaken by the government agencies in collaboration with international development partners and the private sector,” Halanes said. (Kimberly Amor)