City of Dasmariñas, Cavite—The De La Salle University-Dasmariñas Communication & Journalism COMPACT (Communication Impact) 2023 event highlighted the gaps of risk and disaster preparedness in the Philippines that needs to be addressed> The seminar entitled, “Risk-Silience: Building a Risk Ready Community kick-started the 3-day COMPACT 2023.
According to University of the Philippines Resilience Institute (UPRI) Education Division Chief, Richard Ybañez, there has to be a sense of urgency for a resilient disaster preparedness in the country. “We almost have the complete set [of hazards],” said Ybañez about the Philippines’ condition.
He advised the audience to be more resilient due to a number of adversities, “The ability to adapt and to be innovative and creative, [we should do more on disaster preparedness].”
Ybañez also argued that we should learn from our mistakes and acknowledge the gaps by strategizing better in our communication approach.
In relation to this, DLSU-D Associate Director for Safety and Health, Prof. Gideon Legaspi underscored the importance of inter-departmental communication as a way to achieve a multi-sectoral approach to Disaster Risk Reduction Management. He also made mention of aiming to develop more DRRM clusters for the different communities on campus.
He also mentioned that colors and numbers are vital components in communicating hazards and risks to the public. “We need to simplify things so it’s easy to understand, especially about risk and disaster,” Legaspi reminded.
Furthermore, Legaspi said the strategies on disaster and risk communication should be at least understandable to the target audience.
When asked how we should communicate difficult words to the masses, Legaspi advised to bank on local and common knowledge for people to absorb the information easily. On the other hand, when Ybañez was asked how to predict disasters like earthquakes, he said, “we cannot predict right now, but [we can] in the future with the right technology.”
Risk-Silience: Building a Risk Ready Community is part of the COMPACT 2023 activity of the CJD. For more information visit: https://www.facebook.com/compact.cjd?mibextid=ZbWKwL
Contact: Chelsea Janelle David
Cassandra Nicole Maximiano
Mariah Clarriza Perez
Email: [email protected]
