Naga business group drafts disaster resiliency roadmap

By Jagel Mae S. Escandor NAGA CITY----In a two-day workshop held February 28 and March 1 at Avenue Plaza Hotel in this city, business groups drafted a disaster resiliency roadmap known as business continuity plan (BCP) conducted by the Asia Pacific Alliance for Disaster Management, Citizens Disaster Response Center and Tarabang para sa Bicol, Inc. or TABI. Rhiza R. Nery of the Philippine Disaster Resiliency Foundation (PDRF) facilitated the conduct of the workshop and helped the participants draft plans for their businesses to guide them in what to do before, during and after the disaster. Nery said that mainstreaming business continuity plans plays important role in business as no business is immune from disruption. She added that most Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) would claim that they do not have business continuity plans when in fact, they do have existing procedures that can be considered as BCP. “With this workshop, Naga City business sector can complement their existing policies into the BCP and create a more concrete roadmap,” she further said. Metro Naga Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Gilbert Albero shared that mainstreaming the BCP will help them in having a guide in times of disaster and crisis like what happened during the onslaught of typhoon Nina which paralyzed primary business establishments in Camarines Sur including Naga City last December 2016. He also said that having the BCP workshop further ignites everyone’s desire to go on with the initiatives even when the plans seemed complex. “We, Bicolanos are known to be resilient. But we need to grow up and put the word resilience into the right track. We need to build back better. We need to have BCP in order to help better and collaborate,” Albero added. The output of the workshop will be presented to their respective companies and organizations for further review, approval and implementation. Participants come from different stakeholders which include the Metro Naga Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the local government unit of Naga City through the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, Metro Naga Development Council, Metro Naga Water District, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company, Inc. (PLDT) – Naga, Compagnie de Catalina, Mariners Polytechnic Colleges – Naga campus, Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas – Camarines Sur chapter, Philippine Information Agency – Camarines Sur and Tarabang Para sa Bicol, Inc. The stakeholders signed a memorandum of understanding in February last year that gave birth to the local alliance of A-PAD Philippines in Naga City. A-PAD is a trans-national disaster aid alliance that works for collaboration, cooperation and pooling of efforts, sharing of resources between humanitarian organizations, civil society organizations, private sector, and government units in delivering emergency response and early recovery services, and in undertaking projects for rehabilitation, disaster risk reduction, and addressing the vulnerabilities of peoples and communities. CDRC and PDRF are co-conveners of A-PAD-Philippines. The activity was supported by the Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.