CITY APPROVES CREATION OF CDRRMO AS A DEPARTMENT

October 2, 2022 Metro BLISTT

Mayor Benjamin Magalong has ratified City Ordinance No. 60, series of 2022, creating the City Disaster
Risk Reduction Management Office (CDRRMO) as a department in the City Government of Baguio.
It shall be responsible for setting the direction, development, implementation and coordination of DRRM
programs and shall perform specified functions and those that may be authorized by the CDRRM Council.

These functions and responsibilities are focused on DRRM research and planning; administration and training; and operations and warning. The approved ordinance also includes the CDRRMO’s composition and structure and more. It states that Republic Act No. 10121 (An Act Strengthening the Philippine
DRRM System) mandates the creation of Local DRRM Offices at the provincial, city, municipal and barangay levels.

The National DRRM Council-Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG)-Department of Budget and Management (DBM)-Civil Service Commission (CSC) Joint Memorandum Circular No.
2014-01 provides the implementing guidelines for the establishment of Local DRRM Offices or Barangay DRRM Committees in local government units.

“Mainstreaming of the DRRM in all the processes principally requires the institutionalization and organization of its structures, in all levels of government nationwide where local DRRM plans and policies will be developed, and where implementation of actions and measures pertaining to all aspects of DRRM will be initiated,” the ordinance states. The CDRRMO was initially established under the City Administrator’s Office and subsequently transferred in 2019 under the City Mayor’s Office equivalent to a division of a city department.

“Recognizing the city’s fragile environment and vulnerability to hazards, together with its functional roles, among others, as a major tourist destination; a prime education center; a center of trade, business and commerce; and seat of the government in the Cordillera Administrative Region, the existing CDRRMO set-up could not fully and efficiently perform all the tasks and functions as stipulated in RA 10121 and its implementing guidelines,’ the measure states.

Baguio-PIO/Gaby B. Keith