Senator Manuel “Lito” Lapid has filed a bill pushing for the designation of community shelters to serve as evacuation centers in times of natural disasters, calamities and other emergencies.
Senate Bill 1298, seeks to address the present gaps in our disaster responses system. Recall that the eruption of Taal Volcano last Jan. 12, 2020 caught the nation by surprise.
In less than a day, the alert level for the volcano was raised from two to four, with thick ash falls covering large areas of Batangas and Cavite and reaching up to Metro Manila and Calabarzon.
This led affected families to frantically run to available evacuation centers. Unfortunately, many of the evacuation centers are school buildings which in turn, entails the disruption of classes.
Lapid insisted this practice of using classrooms and school buildings as evacuation centers should not be the norm.