By Dainty Clarice Rabang, UPRI Education
As part of Project Talagháy, the Philippine Preparedness Partnership (PhilPrep) conducted an Early Warning System Formulation Workshop for Barangays San Isidro and Tibag of Tarlac City on October 21–24, 2025. The workshop was held at the Provincial Government of Tarlac—University of the Philippines School of Health Sciences Extension Campus in Barangay Tibag, Tarlac City. It was conducted in partnership with the Tarlac City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO), Tarlac Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO), Tarlac State University (TSU), and Tarlac City Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). The goal was to develop an organized early warning system for flooding, formulated by barangay community members themselves.
Workshop participants included barangay officials, barangay workers (Barangay Health Workers, Barangay Tanod, Barangay Peacekeeping Action Teams), and community members living in hazard-prone areas of both Barangay San Isidro and Barangay Tibag.
The UP Resilience Institute, as PhilPrep’s academic pillar, along with Tarlac State University, conducted a talk titled “Mula Ulan Hanggang Baha: Pag-intindi sa Datos, Babala, at mga Monitoring Devices.” They shared concepts of hydrometeorological hazards and sensor use with participants. The academic representatives also helped identify potential interventions for the communities. This highlights the importance of academic and research partnerships in implementing science-based community interventions.
The Center for Disaster Preparedness designed and facilitated the workshop to create an Early Warning System with a dedicated alert level system, and the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation served as the overall coordinator and secretariat. On Day 1, the workshop focused on Tarlac City’s flooding context, identifying triggers and projected impacts per alert level. Day 2 covered the dissemination system and identified actions for the Barangay Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (BDRRMC) and families in the community. The session concluded with action planning and ways forward for implementing the Early Warning System.
PhilPrep is a quadripartite partnership between the Center for Disaster Preparedness (Civil Society), Office of Civil Defense (Government), Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation (Private Sector), and UP Resilience Institute (Academe) that aims to enhance national disaster resilience through multi-sectoral collaboration. This partnership emphasizes the importance of Sustainable Development Goal 17—Partnerships for Sustainability—in ensuring various sectors contribute to and align with the goals of sustainable development and disaster resilience. As part of PhilPrep’s localization goals, engaging with the Tarlac Local Government Units and Tarlac State University and connecting these sectors is a step toward achieving multi-stakeholder localization in provinces, cities, and barangays to become leaders and champions in building resilient communities and a sustainable future.
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