DRRM Kwentuhan in Barangay Bagong Silangan

Earthquakes, floods, landslides, natural calamities that are inevitable. These calamities may result to destruction and huge numbers of casualties. But despite these unavoidable events there are some ways that casualties can be prevented, and that way is called preparedness which is not quiet present in most of the people. As my curiosity walks about these matters I went to a place where it is said that they're "blessed" with these calamities.

Barangay Bagong Silangan is a small barangay in the second district of Quezon City. That is estimated 545 hectares in size with almost 30 thousand families resided in. Located in the midst of a river where it's link in two popular rivers namely the San Mateo River and the Marikina River.

I interviewed Kagawad Frederick Marcelo about the risks, precautions and histories of calamities in their area.

The barangay has a small road and has unfixed drainage system, with it you can observe a lot of paddles and some little flooding around.

He stated that their barangay is "blessed" with a lot of calamities, as their location is surrounded by "danger areas" just like the San Mateo River and Marikina River which water levels quickly elevate when monsoon hits. As he had said, their barangay is a "water basin" from the rains and the waters from the rivers which goes down to them because their place is like a "bottom" (their slope goes down). Just like in bagyong Ondoy last 2009 where there are 150 casualties because of the intense flood.

They're also located in the West Valley Fault, which means that it has a higher risk when earthquake occurs.

Fire is also a prevalent case in their community, with the poor urban planning and houses mostly made from light materials the risk of fire is high. And as he said, there are 6 cases of fire in their community in the past years.

The barangay has long term and short term solutions to address these problems in their community, for concrete long term solutions (e.g. drainage fixing, road widening etc) are spearheaded by the city government (Quezon city government).

To address little floods and paddles in the streets they hire street sweepers and cleaners from the community to clean the clogged drains and get rid of the unnecessary things that may obstruct the flow of water to its proper way.

Second is by raising awareness among the community, according to Kagawad Marcelo this is the most important step in disaster preparedness. The people having diverse attitude problems (e.g. not leaving their house in times of intense flooding) are a huge problem especially for the barangay who's priority is their safety. By raising awareness of the possible dangers to the people, damages and casualties are prevented.





This barangay is like a "prototype" or the "test site" of nature when it comes to these disasters. As of their surroundings, the risk of every disaster is really high. Relating it to the disaster situation of our country, this barangay can also be classified as the same with the geographical location of the Philippines. As we know, the Philippines is an archipelago within the Pacific Ring of Fire where earthquake and tsunamis can occur. It's also not far from the Pacific Ocean where tropical storms are formed. In general, the Philippines is a disaster prone area and with it disasters, damages and casualties are inevitable.

The community needs more infrastructure projects that will focus on fixing the drainage system and widening of roads. So that the flow of water during heavy rains should be properly flowing to our sewers. They also need a better urban planning so that houses wouldn't stick together and the risk of possible fire should lessen.

With all of these disasters that's happening and might happen in our country preparation and responsiveness is the key to survival. Resilience alone can lead you to unexpected or early deaths in times of huge and worse calamities. If you're prepared whatever happens you're ready, in little moves you can save your life or maybe save others lives.

Always be prepared, or something not good is prepared for you.