The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) is crafting a five-year disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) plan with updated data and technology to boost the industry’s readiness and response in times of calamities.
In a statement Friday, May 9, Sugar Board Member David Andrew Sanson, planters’ representative and DRRM chairperson, said the SRA has initiated a series of workshops to update and align its DRRM plan with the program of the national government.
“Readiness is a must for any eventual disaster. While we have a very comprehensive DRRM plan in place, we need to apprise ourselves with new data and technology to maximize our resources and make a bigger impact,” he added.
In organizing the workshop facilitated by the Office of Civil Defense on May 6 and 7, SRA becomes the first among the government-owned and controlled corporations to develop a five-year DRRM plan.
According to the SRA, the workshop-orientation is essential in creating a Sugar Board-approved DRRM plan that ensures a disaster-resilient SRA and sugar industry, and equips frontline officers to serve the industry during calamities and post-calamity rehabilitation.
The activity, which was attended by mill district representatives nationwide, discussed various insights on the current DRRM national standards and how these can be applied in the SRA’s own plan.
Offering insights based on their regional contexts, the participants took part in creating the proposed DRRM plan by identifying roles, organizational concerns, vulnerabilities, and targets.
Sanson said that in recent years, the sugar industry has faced several challenges such as flooding, pestilence, and drought due to El Niño, as well as the ongoing threat of Mt. Kanlaon in Negros Island, which produces majority of the country’s sugar output.
“All these will be taken into consideration in crafting the new plan. We want to provide the best response for our industry stakeholders in the advent of any form of disaster and more importantly, to work on how we can mitigate and prevent such,” he said.*PNA