Generally speaking, our community is quite safe when it comes to typhoons and flooding–the most common calamity we suffer from. This is all thanks to our barangay heads, the kagawads, as they have worked hand in hand with the government to ensure our safety.
Mr. Jeremy Tin stated that in order to become a proactive barangay, they first had to see what the community would experience and how badly they would be affected by these calamities. Luckily for them, they had to prepare thanks to a sudden outpour of rain that happened weeks before the dreadful typhoon known as “Ondoy”.
“Before Ondoy arrived, we actually experienced flooding that reached chest level height in some of our streets. Bigla lang umulan nang malakas–walang bagyo ah, and in a matter of hours, baha na.”
It was in that flood that they were able to assess which were the danger and safe zones of the barangay. They also got to quickly fix some of the clogged canal systems that caused the excessive flooding. Mr. Tin said that if it was not for that storm, they would have never prepared well for Typhoon Ondoy. Luckily, no one got hurt. The only damages were that of houses and cars.
SAFEST SPACES: Damar Loop, the safe zone given that it is the highest ground of the community
Now that they know what to expect from typhoons, the management has started practices that improve the community’s disaster risk reduction.
“Our biggest problem, as I am sure other barangays are also facing, is funding. We have a lot of projects allotted for the betterment of other aspects of the barangay but a big sum of our budget really goes into BDRRM.”
“We plan on buying a big generator for the whole of the barangay, however, that costs a lot of money. We did receive quite a sum from the government as the incentive of our Good Houseekeeping Award. If we keep this up two more years in a row, they are going to give us 2 million pesos as the prize. We plan on using that money to help with the funding”
The government has also helped Damar Village by gifting them a a rescue boat which Mr. Tin stated has been used 2 times in the last 5 years for when excessive flooding had occured.
To be honest, I am quite relieved to know that our barangay is very prepared when it comes to disaster risk reduction. Mr. Tin did state however, that even though the barangay is prepared, the people in the community are not as active. Damar hosts a lot of talks yearly about these topics and only a few citizens show up, most of which are even outsiders. He stresses that the management has done everything they could and are now relying on the people to equipt themselves with BDRRM knowledge so the whole community’s safety is ensured.
From the kwentuhan and also from my community walk, I learned that it takes two to have a safer community. The management and citizens need to work together in order to ensure so. I also saw how hard the kagawads worked to arrive at where our community is at now and I am grateful for that.
This is actually very fitting with our country as well because the efforts of the government are evident (drills, ndrrmc) but the citizens stay ignorant and at the end, suffer when calamity strikes. This is such a big issue and has already been taken to the media across all platforms yearly; with Yolanda being a prime example when people were warned of flash floods and still did not evacuate.
As a member of this community and also this nation, I will become an active member and do my best to educate myself about basic disaster risk reduction management knowledge. I will also influence people I know to do so in order to arrive at a more active community.
My Journey with NSTP 