By Dainty Clarice Rabang, UPRI Education Division
The Philippine Preparedness Partnership (PhilPrep), in partnership with the City Government of Tarlac, conducted Barangay Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (BDRRMC) Capacity Building workshops with the Barangay Council and community members of Barangays San Isidro and Tibag on August 28-29, 2025.
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. The BDRRMC Capacity Building workshop is part of Project Talagháy, PhilPrep’s first collaborative project designed to strengthen the early warning systems of the two aforementioned barangays.
The Tarlac City Department of Interior and Local Government and Tarlac City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office delivered presentations on Republic Act 10121 – The Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 – and the functions of the BDRRMC according to the law and circulars. UP Resilience Institute presented the results of the Flood Hazard Assessment conducted on August 5, 2025, along with flood hazard maps and the proposed sensor network for deployment in both barangays. The Center for Disaster Preparedness shared results from previously conducted Focus Group Discussions and facilitated a workshop on hazard and risk analysis for the community. The Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation served as the overall organizer and secretariat for the event.
Participants created their own hazard maps based on their perception of risks in their community. By combining community insights with scientific studies, this project aims to develop holistic Early Warning systems for these barangays.
Following the activity, the PhilPrep team paid a courtesy visit to Mayor Susan Yap of Tarlac City to provide updates on the project’s implementation. This visit further strengthened the partnership between the Tarlac City Local Government and the Philippine Preparedness Partnership.
This activity demonstrates the importance of cross-sector collaboration in creating community interventions. The Project Talagháy contributes to Sustainable Development Goal 17 – ‘Partnerships for the Goals’, showing how multi-sectoral collaboration leads to optimized, localized, and specific interventions for enhancing community resilience.
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