DILG taps 4Ps in disaster preparedness drive

TACLOBAN CITY, June 8 (PNA) -- The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) regional office here in Eastern Visayas is bringing disaster preparedness advocacy to household level through the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

The DILG’s Operation Listo (alert) started in 2014 with Listong Pamahalaang Lokal, which institutionalized local protocols for disaster preparedness, response and monitoring.

The program was strategized to be more community-based with its second component, the Listong Pamayanan, which is a capacity development intervention that started from LGUs and cascaded to the community.

Listong Pamilyang Pilipino will focus on the family and household level preparedness, the third component of the Operation Listo. This is the department’s advocacy program that strengthens the preparedness of local government units (LGUs) for disasters using the whole-of-government approach.

DILG Eastern Visayas information officer Myles Colasito said DSWD has an existing core group through its 4Ps beneficiaries that meets every month for their sessions that can be tapped by their agency.

“Their network and existing system will be very helpful to the program,” Colasito said.

A representative from DILG will join the family development sessions with Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) beneficiaries to push for their own program in disaster preparedness.

The DILG launched the program in Manila on April and was launched locally last month. Dubbed as Gabay at Mapa para sa Listong Pamilyang Pilipino, this will serve as a family guide to action before, during and after a disaster, according to Colasito.

DILG plans to hold more tsunami and storm surge drills for families to be aware and for local government units to be capacitated on what to do during disasters. (PNA)
JMC/SQM/LIZBETH ANN A. ABELLA/EGR