00:00 It is the 10th anniversary of the Typhoon Yolanda and the nationwide simultaneous earthquake drill.
00:05 We will talk with Director Edgar Posadas, the spokesperson of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council or NDRRMC.
00:16 Director Posadas, good afternoon.
00:18 Good afternoon to you and to all of your listeners.
00:25 Sir, today is November 8 and we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Typhoon Yolanda.
00:32 What activities are we preparing for this commemoration?
00:36 Yes. We are not physically there but there are many activities that are lined up for the commemoration.
00:49 We heard that our President might be there as well.
00:52 But the Office of Civil Defense is represented there because we will also hold, if I'm not mistaken, our ground break in our office
01:06 that will be held in Tacloban City.
01:10 Of course, our Office of Civil Defense is there.
01:14 Asek Raffy Alejandro is there as representative of Usec Nepomuceno and our regional director, Director Lord Bayron Torrecarrion is there as well to be there.
01:28 Until now, the OCD is in favor of the revival of the disaster in Yolanda.
01:38 We started providing financial assistance to those who are in the winged family and those who are injured.
01:47 Until the last few years, we have been conducting rehab and recovery efforts.
01:59 The last thing that we supported, if I'm not mistaken, by the Office of Civil Defense is the installation of water,
02:08 the water metro to their homes, to the permanent shelters that were built in Northern Barangays and Tacloban.
02:18 We supported this so that every house that is being built will have water. We are moving it to critical areas, especially those near the sea.
02:37 Those are our initiatives. Of course, we are continuing to advocate and reiterate in every discussion, in every forum, in every activity in disaster preparedness,
02:56 the lessons learned from Yolanda that she changed our benchmarking towards preparedness and beyond, the four thematic pillars of disaster risk reduction and management.
03:15 Director, can you share with us some of the lessons learned from this great tragedy?
03:25 Yes. We should not be complacent. We are saying preparedness is the key, but when do we actually say that we have prepared enough.
03:39 The significant initiatives that were done, like OCD, is the logistics cluster. This was allowed by the law, what we call prepositioning of goods in various places in Tacloban
04:02 and other regions. Before the disaster, the goods should be prepositioned. We are also building alternative government centers.
04:15 If one is not functional, we can move it to the other. We are also maximizing what our President said, that we should have a science-based approach.
04:30 We are supporting initiatives on forecasting that our friends in DOST Pagasa are doing.
04:41 We are doing early alert warning messaging to forewarn people. We also maximize digital technology. We have apps in DOST, their apps on their phones, Hazard Hunter.
05:03 People become more aware, in other words, their awareness that they are informed beforehand so they can respond.
05:16 We have satellite phones and drone technology for assessing before, during and after. Those are just a few of the concrete initiatives that are being implemented by the Ministry of Defense through the Office of Civil Defense.
05:43 Sir, there will be a nationwide simultaneous earthquake drill on November 9. What are the details of this?
05:49 Yes. It is right. This is a timely event because as we commemorate the 10th anniversary of the earthquake, we are preparing for a possible disaster
06:06 because science cannot predict, unlike the earthquakes. We can predict when it will land and how strong it will be.
06:14 We have not yet perfected the forecast for earthquakes. We should be more prepared.
06:24 Tomorrow, as you mentioned, we have a fourth quarter nationwide simultaneous earthquake drill, or NSET. Our pilot site is here in the municipality of Casiguran in Aurora.
06:40 This is in line with the commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the strong earthquake in Casiguran. If you can hear, our grandparents are mentioning this.
06:52 This happened simultaneously on August 2, 1968, when the Ruby Tower fell. My parents are telling this story. Many people died here, 268.
07:06 Many buildings in Metro Manila were affected, like the National Library.
07:13 That's why we will look at this and go back to where it happened. We will look at the preparedness of the local government of Casiguran because they will be assessed for their preparedness,
07:28 their response teams, their equipment and their mechanisms. But this is not just in Casiguran. We will do this simultaneously.
07:40 We have pilot sites in the 17 regional centers of the Office of Civil Defense.
07:50 We are also thanking our partners, not only the government but also the private sector that are helping us. They are working together.
08:00 This is just where I live. This is a high-rise. They have their own preparations to work together. We are thankful that they are valuing this initiative.
08:15 Likewise, our friends in the media, we would like to thank you also for playing a big role in bringing our preparedness to a situation where we cannot predict when it will happen.
08:31 All right. Thank you very much for your time Director Edgar Posadas and the spokesperson of NDRRMC.
