Different nationalities participate in the Pacific Partnership 2012

TACLOBAN CITY – In its bid to have a resilient community worldwide, different nationalities were gathered at the city of Calbayog to participate in the conduct of the Pacific Partnership 2012 starting June 18 to July 1.

The Mission Pacific Partnership is noted to be the largest annual humanitarian and civic assistance mission based in the Asia Pacific Region that is designed to strengthen the regional relationships and increase interoperability between the United States and partnered nations, international humanitarian and relief organizations.

The different partner nations involved include Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Great Britain, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines and Cambodia.

According to a statement released by the US Navy, the Pacific Partnership 2012 will sail to the host nation countries of Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia to provide medical, dental and other services to the people.

It is said that to have a faster and more efficient responses to disasters, past real world missions and associated cooperation further validate the need for countries throughout the Pacific to carry out missions like Pacific partnership, which enhance the coordination between militaries, government agencies and civil organizations.

Representative Mel Senen Sarmiento of the 1st congressional district of Samar in an interview said that the Pacific Partnership simply implied that the Philippine government is active on the advocacy on disaster preparedness.

He said that since the Philippines is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, known to be vulnerable to any disaster, giving importance that people have to be aware on what are they supposed to do during such incidents.

In fact, he said that an advocacy was already adopted as a law by the legislators of the country, which is called as the national disaster risk reduction and management law.

“The position of the local government unit (LGU) before is being reactive because they still wait until any type of disaster occurred before the release of the calamity fund. According to this new law, 70 percent of the DRRM fund must be used pro-actively or before the disaster and only the remaining 30 percent would be used after the calamity,” Sarmiento said.  

Dealing with country having a resilient community, the official put emphasis on the advent of the modern and the latest technologies being used in Japan.

He said that when super typhoon crosses Japan and exits it is just super typhoon itself alone; however, in the Philippines when it enters the country it become disaster already for many of the community are affected that most of the times leads to death as well as damage many facilities.

Sarmiento further said that disaster could really be reduced and prevented yet it cannot be totally avoided but it could be lessened. “That is the reason why there is a law to reduce the risks.”

He added that because of the effect of the climate change that we are experiencing now, new manners necessarily needs to be adopted by the people.

“We need to simulate a disaster orchestrated response, but, it is very alarming to note that there is no organization in responding for the affected community because all are said to be bosses,” the solon said.

Furthermore, the official emphasized that it is important that the local officials like the chief executives, who is the head of the disaster management committee of their area, should ensure that all the residents of their area are being attended to.  

“Local chief executives during disasters in their covered area are expected to be the first responders by our community. We necessarily have to come up with proper planning on how we would be able to quickly but in an organized manner respond to those who are affected,” Sarmiento said. (REY GERILLA GRADO) 

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Posted by lsde on Jun 25 2012. Filed under Second Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.