DILG-ARMM holds strategic planning on climate change and disaster preparedness

COTABATO CITY – To encourage local government units
(LGUs) to develop climate change and disaster-preparedness programs, the
Department of the Interior and Local Government of the Autonomous
Region in Muslim Mindanao (DILG-ARMM) conducted a planning workshop on
Thursday, October 08, at this city’s Pagana Resto.

The regional strategic planning workshop targets to integrate Climate
Change Adaptation (CCA) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in local
development planning. Representatives from different civil society
organizations, regional line agencies, and the academe participated in
the training.

Sharifa Pearlsia Ai-Dans, DILG-ARMM regional assistant secretary, said
the one-day training aims at forging partnership between DILG-ARMM and
the various stakeholders as well as organize a composite team that will
help gather data on disaster risk and climate change situations in
various LGUs in the region.

She added the agency wants LGUs to focus on embedding both CCA and DRR
into local development plans, to address issues on climate change, and
to help reduce the risk” they might encounter.

Republic Act 10121, or an act strengthening the Philippine disaster risk
reduction and management system, mandates LGUs to allocate funds for
CCA and DRR programs. This is also underscored in Republic Act 9279, or
the climate change act of 2009, and the general welfare clause of the
Local Government Code of 1991.

The result of the planning will be presented to 47 pre-identified
disaster prone LGUs in the region. Dans urged the LGUs to be supportive
of the implementation and mainstreaming of the DRR and CCA into their
local development plans since their constituents are the direct
beneficiaries of these measures.

Parts of Maguindanao and Lanao del Sur in ARMM are within the Mindanao
River Basin and have been considered as disaster-prone areas.