ILOILO — Disaster officials have declared a new frontier in Iloilo Province’s disaster preparedness campaign: ensuring that every barangay has its own evacuation center, warning that stronger typhoons, rapid population growth and worsening climate risks could overwhelm existing municipal shelters despite all 43 local government units (LGUs) already having operational evacuation facilities.
Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) head Cornelio Salinas said every municipality and the province’s lone component city now has at least one evacuation center capable of accommodating families displaced by floods, landslides, storm surges and other disasters through preemptive or forced evacuations.
But Salinas stressed that Iloilo cannot afford to stop there, saying disaster preparedness must now extend to the barangay level.
“This will enable faster evacuations, earlier prepositioning of relief supplies and emergency equipment, and quicker deployment of responders before typhoons strike,” Salinas said.
More than half of Iloilo’s 1,721 barangays already have evacuation centers, but hundreds of villages still rely on barangay halls, public schools and other government buildings as temporary shelters because they lack the financial resources to build dedicated facilities, revealed Salinas.
He said strategically located municipal evacuation centers have significantly strengthened the province’s disaster response by allowing authorities to preposition relief goods, emergency equipment and responders in areas forecast to be affected by approaching typhoons.
Most evacuation centers were financed by their respective LGUs, although some local governments received financial assistance from the Iloilo provincial government for the construction, renovation or rehabilitation of their facilities.
The PDRRMO also provided augmentation funds for several projects.
Salinas said evacuation centers must comply with prescribed standards, including adequate comfort rooms, kitchens, potable water systems, solar-powered electricity and locations that are safe from flooding and other hazards.
“Kinahanglan may amo na nga package sa paglantaw sang evacuation centers naton because in the first place this is how we mitigate the impact of calamities, this is how we come up with efficient response systems kon madala na naton sila dira as preemptive or forced evacuation,” he said.
He also called for animal-friendly evacuation centers with designated areas for livestock and pets to discourage evacuees from returning to danger zones to care for their animals during disasters.
Drawing lessons from previous calamities, Salinas said storm surges in coastal communities usually displace more residents than floods or landslides because of the large number of informal settlers living along shorelines. He added that future evacuation centers should be designed with projected population growth in mind, particularly in coastal municipalities.
“Dapat kon magpatindog sang evacuation center, lantawon nila ang future percentage or increase in their population because in the first place amo ni ang demographic scene nga magadikta sang kadakuon sang evacuation center,” he said.
Apart from expanding evacuation infrastructure, the provincial government continues to implement its Purok Resilience Program, which relocates families living in hazard-prone communities to safer areas while keeping them close to their sources of livelihood. Functional relocation sites have already been completed in Barangay Nangka, Batad, while additional projects are planned in Oton and Santa Barbara.
“It’s high time gid man ang aton mga pumoluyo kuhaon sila kag indi na sila mag-insist sa pagtinir sa hazard zones. Identified naman ina, bal-an naman naton nga may landslide tapos still ara man sila gihapon, so balik-balik ang problema. Dapat sundon na naton, amo na gani nga may hazard mapping,” Salinas said./PN
IME SORNITO/PN
