BAGUIO CITY – The City Engineering Office (CEO) revealed the construction of the 4-storey City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CDRRMC) within its compound in City Camp is nearly 60 percent complete. City Engineer Elpidio Garabiles informed city department heads that the building is 57 percent complete with full completion projected by March 2018.
However, he said the project could be completed earlier than scheduled if there will be no supervening events that could derail the construction activities.
Earlier, Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan inquired from the CEO the status of the CDRRMC building project so that the personnel of the said office could already transfer to their new office and help in improving the city’s disaster operating center and to provide additional evacuation centers for victims of natural and man-made calamities in the city in the future.
It will be recalled that the city government appropriated some P70 million from its CDRRM fund for the period 2014-2016 to bankroll the construction of the 4-storey CDRRMC building that will accommodate the city’s disaster operating center, CDRRMC office, evacuation center and multipurpose center to help decongest the main city hall building.
The construction of the CDRRMC building started last year and was programmed to be completed on or before March 2018. Garabiles claimed the construction of the CDRRMC building was included as part of the Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (LDRRM) plan of the city for the period 2014-2016 to provide a one-stop disaster response facility to ensure centralized operations in times of man-made and natural calamities that may visit the city in the future.
Under the provisions of the law that created the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council and its regional, provincial, city, municipal and barangay counterparts, local governments are mandated to appropriate 5 percent of their annual budget for disaster risk reduction and management activities with 70 percent of the budget earmarked for DRRM projects while 30 percent are for relief and emergency operations.
Garabiles assured the mayor that they are closely monitoring the construction of the DRRMC building to make sure that the contractor will adhere to the schedule of activities for its timely completion on or before March next year.
Currently, the CDRRMC office is located in some vacant offices within the main city hall building wherein its equipment and vehicles contribute to the overcrowding of the seat of the city government.
Garabiles said one of the major features of the CDRRM building is its underground parking that will accommodate a sufficient number of vehicles to help provide parking spaces for government vehicles.
By Dexter A. See