Five coastal municipalities in Iloilo province will soon have their respective Civil Defense Operations Hub, also known as the Resilience Hub, to ensure efficient coordination with local government units during disasters.
The towns of Estancia, Banate, Carles, Concepcion, and Miagao are recipients of the P5 million worth of Resilience Hub from the Iloilo provincial government.
The facility will also serve as headquarters for the management of the Visayan Sea and a home for the Bantay Dagat team.
In a Capitol press report, Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. emphasized the need to capacitate and engage municipalities and schools in beefing up the country’s disaster risk reduction and management efforts.
“Our mantra is that the best defense is development,” Defensor said during the courtesy visit of Office of Civil Defense (OCD) 6 regional director Raul Fernandez.
Defensor also expressed his support for OCD’s plan to involve state universities and colleges (SUCs) in reviving the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC).
Defensor said it is vital to organize a school-based national service reserve corps to capacitate students in civil defense.
“We want to be involved in the ROTC program and develop a mindset that ROTC is for development,” he added.AAL/LMLE/PIA Iloilo/Balita Halin sa Kapitolyo
