MESSAGE
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Bayambang is no stronger to disasters, chiefly because of the annual
typhoon season. Historically, it is a town that was established precisely because
of a great flooding incident in its original settlements.
Despite the transfer of the town to a higher elevation, however, the current
center of the town (Poblacion) and its low-lying areas near Agno River remain
especially prone to flooding during the typhoon season. In fact, residents have
seen one of the worst episodes in 1976 when typhoon “Didang” washed away the
bridge connecting the Bayambang train station to Bautista town and inundated scores of houses with neck-deep waters on the main avenue.
Ever since that watershed event in our collective memory, our journey towards disaster risk reduction and mitigation has been long and
hard. Since then, hard-won lessons certainly have been learned.
One of the fruits of that traumatic experience is that we now have policies
in place at our disposal, with the help of several technological tools coupled
with updated scientific knowledge in several fields. Back then, we did not even
have emergency hotlines, a command center, smart phones, social media, and concerned
government agencies at all levels. But now, we have PAG-ASA, OCD, Philvocs, MSWDO,
NDRRMC, MDRRMC, and BDRRMCs.
While it is true that natural disasters have a certain unpredictability,
we now know that they also have a cyclical nature. Having encountered an
assortment of natural disasters as an inevitable part of our existence, assiduously preparing an LDRRM Plan like this is only
the right thing to do. We owe it to ourselves to be forearmed, and we owe it to
our constituents to be forewarned. Though preparedness at all times may seem to
border on paranoia, it is far better than complacency and being caught
off-guard by Mother Nature’s wrath.
My deep gratitude, therefore, goes out to everyone who got involved in
bringing this important tool ever-ready and within our reach in times of need.
HON. MARY CLARE JUDITH PHYLLIS JOSE-QUIAMBAO
Municipal Mayor
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