Belmonte backs mandatory disaster plans for businesses

Quezon City businesses may soon be required to submit disaster contingency plans when applying for permits.

Mayor Joy Belmonte, during the Metro Manila Shake Drill yesterday, stressed the importance of ensuring that businesses have their own contingency plans during disasters and emergencies.

She also cited the need to form strong linkages with the private sector, civil society organizations and other volunteer groups as they can serve as effective force multipliers during wide-scale disasters.

“Quezon City is always ready. We can see that all the needed equipment and services are here,” she said in Filipino following the early morning activity at UP Ayala Technohub along Commonwealth Avenue.

“We have done this so many times and we thank the government for their support,” she added, referring to the emergency drill.

A disaster scenario involving people trapped in a medium-rise structure was simulated in during the drill in Quezon City.

Paramedics from the city’s disaster risk reduction and management office and a special unit of the Bureau of Fire Protection responded to the emergency, with Belmonte acting as the city’s “responsible official.”

Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Danilo Lim and Science Undersecretary Renato Solidum, head of the Philippine Institute for Volcanology and Seismology, also observed and evaluated the drill.

During the drill, the city government also displayed its state-ofthe-art disaster response hardware, including a mobile command bus and a “war room” where incident managers can converge and plan their response.

Also on display was one of the city’s unmanned firefighting vehicles.