SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The Antique Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council‘s (PDRRMC) response cluster will conduct an infrastructure integrity assessment to ensure their safety and resilience in times of high-intensity quakes.
“The PDRRMC response cluster will be prioritizing the assessment of government buildings for they are being considered to be critical facilities,” PDRRM Officer Broderick Train said in an interview on Saturday.
The PDRRMC response cluster will meet next week to discuss the infrastructure inspection, Train added.
“Our province is experiencing earthquakes now and then because it is along the Panay Fault and near the Negros Trench. That is why we have to ensure that our facilities are also safe,” he said.
The conduct of the assessment is in response to the July 27 Memorandum 63 issued by Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Regional Director Jose Roberto Nuñez, who also chairs the Western Visayas DRRMC.
The memorandum was issued after a magnitude 7 earthquake shook Abra and nearby provinces in northern Luzon on July 27.
The PDRRMC response cluster, composed of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), Provincial Engineering Office, Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office, and other government agencies, will formulate plans on how to carry out the assessment.
Train said government buildings are considered critical facilities due to the daily volume of people visiting for transactions.
The coming safety assessment will supplement the DPWH’s and BFP’s yearly inspections of buildings as a requirement for the renewal of building permits and in adherence to the Fire Code of the Philippines, Train said. (PNA)