A resolution requesting the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council through the Mayor’s Office to conduct regular city-wide earthquake drills for all sectors, was passed by the Sangguniang Panglungsod of Bacolod City Wednesday.

Authored by Councilor Homer Bais, the resolution said the magnitude 6.9 earthquake that hit Negros Monday was an eye-opener.

It is high time that a massive information campaign be conducted so Bacolod residents will be prepared for any disaster that may occur, it said.

The resolution said residents, including the city government employees, were not prepared as shown by the chaotic and disorderly manner in which they reacted Monday. The City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office was not seen leading or directing them when they took to the streets and open spaces for safety, it added.

Meanwhile, the SP also approved a resolution favorably endorsing the request of Alangilan National High School to the Office of Vice President Jejomar Binay for a school bus, which the upland high school needs.

The resolution, authored by Councilor Caesar Distrito, said Alangilan National High School is located at the eastern portion of Bacolod that is surrounded by sugarcane plantations and cockfighting pens and is about 10 kilometers from the barangay proper.

The area where the school is located is no longer safe for the students since the rapid increase in the number of cockfighting pens has drawn more strangers to the barangay, the resolution said.

Several cases of harassment involving female students of the school had happened, which has brought fear to some parents and led them to force their children to quit school, it said.

It said authorities and officers of the Parents-Teachers Association of the school are worried about the safety of the students and believe that a school bus that will fetch the students from their residences going to the school and vice versa will be beneficial.

Due to financial constraints, the city cannot provide the school a school bus so there is a need to seek the support of the national government, preferably the Office of the Vice President Jejomar Binay who is known to be an advocate of free and accessible education in the country, the resolution added.*CGS/LMR

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