Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista has signed an ordinance mandating all establishments in its area to conduct earthquake drills twice a year.
He backed City Ordinance 2674-2018 or the “Mandatory Earthquake Drill Ordinance of Quezon City,” mandates all owners and managers of establishments in Quezon City to conduct earthquake drills with their employees, students, tenants, and occupants for at least twice a year.
The ordinance said the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has identified 13 barangays in Quezon City traversing by the West Valley Fault.
“Phivolcs has urged that the various locations where the West Valley Fault traverses should be a major basis for the people’s preparedness for earthquakes, as the very destructive ground shaking can cause and poses an immediate threat to people’s lives, buildings and infrastructures, and livelihood,” the ordinance read.
The city’s Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Research and Planning Section chief, Bianca Perez, said their office is yet to come up with the implementing rules and regulation for the said ordinance.
Meanwhile, the sub-committee on children with special needs (CSN) of the Quezon City Council for the Protection of Children will conduct a community mapping to ensure that all CSNs in the city are accounted for.
The house-to-house survey is intended not only to collect the exact number of CSNs, but also to determine the kind of assistance the city government has to offer them that is most appropriate to their individual needs.
The Quezon City Division of City Schools (QC DCS) reported that there are about 3,911 CSNs enrolled in the city’s 57 SPED schools – a figure the QC DCS deems to be unrealistic.