FOLLOWING QUINTA, ROLLY

Zarate renews call for swift passage of evacuation centers bill

Following the onslaught of Typhoon Quinta and Super Typhoon Rolly, along with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the impending Tropical Storm Siony, Bayan Muna party-list Representative Carlos Zarate on Monday renewed his call for the passage of the Evacuation Centers bill.

"With quarantine facilities for COVID patients occupying the normal evacuation centers in cities and provinces, and the successive battering of typhoons we are now experiencing; the need to fast track House Bill 5259 or the Evacuation Centers bill becomes more apparent," Zarate said in a statement.

According to Zarate, since normal evacuation centers are being used to isolate COVID-19 patients, residents of areas hit by Quinta and Rolly had difficulty finding other safe places to seek shelter.

The latest National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council report showed that more than two million individuals from 12 regions have been affected by Rolly.

"Now is the time to construct more disaster resilient evacuation centers," he said.

House Bill 5259 provides that the evacuation centers to be established should be big enough to accommodate the target population, strong enough to withstand calamities, and away from waters and landslide-prone areas.

"This is a departure from the common practice of using schools and multi-purpose halls as evacuation centers but are still in danger prone areas," Zarate said.

"The evacuation centers proposed by House Bill 5259 should also be located in between barangays so that more people can reach them at the soonest time possible and may also serve as the command center for disaster response," he added.

Apart from being able to withstand strong calamities, the evacuation centers proposed under House Bill 5259 should have the following facilities and equipment:

• • Cubicles which could house at least five families;
• • Restrooms;

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• • Centralized kitchen and laundry areas;
• • A generator;
• • Sufficient water supply;
• • DRRM training facilities; 
• • Rainwater catchment system;
• • A clinic which will house sufficient and necessary medical equipment, as well as a counseling area;
• • Offices for Social welfare and Local Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (LDDRMC) personnel;
• • Appropriate natural ventilations;
• • Stockroom for relief goods; and
• • Such other physical provisions guaranteeing humane conditions for evacuees

"The fact that the Philippines is a country in the Ring of Fire and is also often visited by typhoons yearly, the government has to undertake measures while waiting for the completion of a comprehensive disaster preparedness program and its eventual implementation," Zarate said.

"We can save lives by ensuring that sturdy and disaster-resilient, climate change-adaptive evacuation centers are located at a distance safe from waters and landslide-prone areas in every two to three contiguous barangays," he added. —Erwin Colcol/KG, GMA News