BAGUIO CITY – The City Council approved on first reading a proposed ordinance requiring all primary and secondary schools, whether public or private, to install emergency lighting systems in their school campuses and buildings to ensure the safety of their students, especially during emergency situations or scheduled and unscheduled power interruptions.
The ordinance authored by Vice mayor Edison R. Bilog stated that it will be a declared policy of the local government to require all primary and secondary schools, whether public or private, to provide emergency lighting system such as emergency lights, exit signs, and illuminations to ensure the safety of the students, especially during emergency situations or in times of scheduled and unscheduled power interruptions.
The ordinance tasked the City Buildings and Architecture Office (CBAO) in coordination with the Department of Education-Cordillera and the Department of Education–Division of City Schools to ensure the strict implementation of the measure.
Further, the CBAO will also be mandated to conduct ocular inspections in11 school premises after the approval and effectivity of the measure to check the compliance of the institutions to the prescribed requirements.
The ordinance also mandated the CBAO to prepare the implementing rules and regulations of the measure and the same shall be submitted to the City Mayor and the local legislative body for approval.
The ordinance stipulated that the City Public Information Office under the City Mayor’s Office and the Public Information Office of the local legislative body shall ensure the widest dissemination of the measure for the understanding and cooperation of not only the concerned stakeholders but also the students of the said institutions.
Section 16 of Republic Act (RA) 7610 or the Local Government Code of the Philippines provides that every local government unit shall exercise the powers expressly granted, those necessarily implied therefrom, as well as powers necessary, appropriate, or incidental for its efficient and effective governance, and those which are essential to the promotion of the general welfare.
Moreover, the same provision states every local government should also promote safety and maintain peace and order, and preserve the comfort and convenience of its inhabitants.
The ordinance noted that during previous scheduled and unscheduled power interruptions in the city, numerous parents raised concern when they found themselves and their children plunged into darkness and are unable to identify safe egress pathways because their children’s schools reportedly lack the necessary emergency lights and exit signs with illuminations.
According to the proposed ordinance, such safety matter, if not immediately addressed by the concerned institutions, could result to possible injury and fear to the children.
While emergency lights, illuminated exit signs, and other emergency lighting systems may already be in place for newly built schools, the ordinance disclosed many of the existing schools in the city were built before the imposition of the said standards for the purpose of safety, thus, the need for the said schools to comply with the new regulations.
By Dexter A. See