MANILA -- In observance of the National Disaster Resilience Month (NDRM) 2023 this July, the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) is once again emphasizing the importance of a whole-of-nation approach in building disaster resilience.
With the theme: “BIDAng Pilipino: Building a stronger Filipino wellbeing towards disaster resilience," the agency is advocating for collective effort to ensure the safety of communities against disaster by promoting wellbeing holistically.
“NDRM 2023 is a call for us to continue working to make the Signature Filipino Smile of Resilience clearly stand for our ability to mitigate, prepare, respond, and recover from disasters. The time is now for us to scale up our strategies and work in surmounting the impacts of disaster through foresight and preparedness.” said Undersecretary Ariel Nepomuceno, Civil Defense Administrator and National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (NDRRMC) Executive Director.
“Our goal is to make the annual NDRM observance bring our nation closer to the goal of building safer, climate change adaptive and disaster resilient communities across these islands. Our countrymen can thus be assured that we at the Office of Civil Defense will continue to advocate for action and cooperation from all levels of governance, community-based organizations and the public to ensure the safety, adaptiveness and resilience of every Filipino for this generation and the next.” he added.
Meanwhile, the OCD launched the Resilience Mobile Photography and Reel-silience contests to encourage public participation in the observance along with its Information, Education, and Communication campaign on NDRM.
Executive Order Number 29 signed on June 28, 2017 mandates the observance of NDRM "throughout the country through the conduct of activities relative to building of disaster resilience covering the four thematic areas,"
Regional DRRMCs, Local DRRMCs, and Barangay Committee are also tasked to implement activities and programs relative to NDRM.
The NDRRMC through OCD leads the month-long celebration of NDRM. The council member agencies, regional DRRMCs and OCD regional offices have also started implementing their respective programs and activities for NDRM 2023. (OCD)
