The Quezon City Council is urging the Department of Public Works and Highways to spearhead the structural retrofitting of all national government buildings based in the city.
Under City Resolution No. SP-6926, S2016, Councilor Gian Carlo G. Sotto asked Public Works Secretary Mark Villar to facilitate the structural retrofitting of all national government buildings as a precaution against a major earthquake that may strike Metro Manila in the future.
Sotto explained that part of the city government advocacy is instilling preparedness among the city’s populace. He said there is an imperative need to make major structures, particularly government buildings more calamities resilient specifically during earthquakes and super typhoons.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology had identified large areas in QC as traversing the West Valley Fault Line that poses grave risk and damage in the lives of the people in the eventuality of a major earthquake.
Sotto said both the national and local government should be an exemplar in disaster preparedness and must share the moral high ground in taking initiative in making public building safe for all employees and the general public.
“It is a declared policy of the QC government to ensure the safety and well-being of the people by providing measures that would protect them from the calamitous effect of a major natural disaster like earthquake,” said Sotto.
As this developed, Mayor Herbert M. Bautista has directed city engineer Joselito Cabungcal to conduct a safe building program to ensure the safety of all QC-based structures, especially high-people structures such as schools, theaters and shopping malls.
The Mayor also funded the retrofitting of decades-old city hall building to ensure its structural integrity and stability.