THE Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) said it is coming up with an audit tool to assess the structural integrity of buildings in Metro Manila and nearby areas.
Interior Undersecretary for local government Marlo Iringan said the “harmonized infrastructure audit tool” will be launched soon as part of government’s preparations for the “Big One,” or a magnitude 7.2 earthquake from the movement of the West Valley Fault System.
The Big One is projected to leave some 50,000 people dead and some 160,000 others injured.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said 13 percent of residential buildings in Metro Manila will either collapse or sustain heavy damage in the Big One scenario if these are not reinforced.
It also said 11 percent of 10-30 story commercial buildings and two percent of 30-60 story commercial buildings are expected to suffer the same fate.
During the 2nd annual Earthquake Preparedness Summit in Quezon City on Tuesday, Iringan said the country is “not yet that ready.”
“But we can be ready,” he added, noting the DILG has taken measures to prepare for the scenarios.
These measures, Iringan said, include the implementation of capacity development programs for barangays, particularly those that are transected by the West Valley Fault in the National Capital Region, Central Luzon, and Calabarzon.
“As of last year, we have trained 91 out of 92 targeted barangays on basic disaster reduction for earthquake preparedness, and this would include … telling the people where the evacuation area is, first aid, basic first aid, and even the management of the dead and the missing,” added Iringan.
He said the harmonized infrastructure audit tool will be launched “to establish a national standard for assessing local public infrastructures, particularly their vulnerability to high magnitude earthquakes.”
He said the DILG is working with other government agencies and private stakeholders, particularly the Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers and the Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines, “to come up with the standards for this tool.”
“We will be piloting this in the Calabarzon Region, National Capital Region, and Region 3 (Central Luzon),” added Iringan, without saying when this will happen.
He said the DILG is also working with universities and colleges, noting that they want to tap fourth year and fifth year engineering students, “to get their help in assessing the buildings that we have in our midst.”
“If we will just rely on our local government units, it will take years before our LGUs will be able to assess the current condition of the buildings in their AORs (areas of responsibility),” said Iringan, noting that thousands of buildings need to be assessed.
Ariel Nepomuceno, administrator of the Office of Civil Defense, emphasized the need to prepare for strong earthquakes.
“We should know what the plans are, and these plans are not for library materials,” Nepomuceno said in his address at the summit.
“The purpose of the annual earthquake summit that we have institutionalized is to make sure that these are living plans – plans that will evolve, plans that will continuously improve because of our common mission to save the lives of our citizens,” he said.
Defense Secretary Gilberto Jr, chairman of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said earthquake readiness “is a continuous process that requires sustained investment and commitment.”
“It must be a collaborative effort involving government agencies, private sector organizations and local communities,” Teodoro said in a message, read by Defense Undersecretary Angelito De Leon.
Teodoro said preparedness “goes beyond individual action, and demands a comprehensive approach that prioritizes infrastructure resilience and a unified understanding of DRRM command and control.”
