Koronadal City, a finalist in Gawad Kalasag 2014

KORONADAL CITY - For strengthening its disaster preparedness program, Koronadal City was chosen asone of the three finalists in the Gawad Kalasag 2014 of the National Disaster Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) and Office of the Civil Defense (OCD). Mayor Peter Miguel said as part of disaster preparedness the city government purchased modernrescue equipment. Koronadal City is one of the few local government units (LGU) in the Philippines that allocated portion of its land as a relocation site to families living in landslides, flashfloods and natural calamities. The City government have started building houses for families affected by landslides in Upper Acub, a sub-village of San Isidro. We have rubber boats, we have also established an office that will focus on disaster preparedness, but above allI think the reason why we are on the front line now was the active participation of every barangay,” Miguel told DXOM FM Wednesday. The local chief executive believed that other contributory factors that made Koronadal City as one of the candidates for the prestigious award are the yearly tree growing festival, education and information dessimination campaign especially in schools and the disasters drills conducted in major establishments in the city. Koronadal City will be up against the two other cities in the Outstanding City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CDRRMC) Category of Gawad Kalasag Awards. Also competing for the award are the perennial winner Legaspi City in Albay and The Island Garden City of Samal in Davao del Norte. Final evaluation for next year’s awarding ceremony for the top three cities will be in November 27 to 29. It was the first time that Koronadal City made it as one of the finalists. We are now preparing for the final evaluation and strengthening our support data,” Miguel said.