Bill building evacuation centers in all cities, towns refiled

FILE: Modular tents set up inside the premises of the General Roxas Elementary School in Barangay Roxas District, Quezon City. (PNA photo by Robert Oswald P. Alfiler)

MANILA – Senator Win Gatchalian has refiled a bill pushing for the establishment of an evacuation center in every city and municipality in the country.

Under his Senate Bill No. 940 or the Evacuation Center Act, Gatchalian said evacuation centers shall provide immediate evacuation for people who have been displaced from their homes due to disasters, calamities, or other emergencies, including severe climate disturbances, fire, and the outbreak of illnesses and diseases.

Gatchalian pointed out the common practice of using school buildings as evacuation centers during calamities, which disrupt school activities.

He also said there is a lack of or inadequacy of calamity-proof school buildings and classrooms.

“Because of this, many classrooms also get damaged after a typhoon or calamity and therefore cannot be utilized as evacuation centers,” he said in a news release on Monday.

Under Gatchalian’s proposed measure, new evacuation centers and improvements in schools used as evacuation centers should be able to withstand wind speeds of 320 kilometers per hour and moderate seismic activity of at least 7.2 magnitude.

“Hindi na tayo dapat masanay na gumamit ng mga silid-paaralan bilang mga evacuation center, lalo na’t nakakaantala ito sa pagpapatuloy ng edukasyon matapos ang isang sakuna (We should do away from using classrooms as evacuation center since it disrupts classes after disaster),” he said.

In Western Visayas alone, the Department of Education (DepEd) Region 6’s Rapid Assessment and Damages Report (RADAR) showed that 380 classrooms were totally damaged, with 397 more partially damaged when super typhoon Odette ravaged the country in December 2021.

RADAR also reported that there were 11 schools damaged in Central Luzon, nine in Cagayan Valley, eight in Cordillera Administrative Region, and seven in Ilocos Region due to a magnitude 7 earthquake that hit northern Luzon last month.

The National Disaster Risk and Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) and the chief executives of local government units (LGU) shall also make a priority list of LGUs needing evacuation centers.

He said if an LGU has no available site for construction, the NDRRMC may consider improving facilities in schools or other structures already being used as evacuation centers.