The Iloilo Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) has improved the communications capabilities of its municipal and city counterparts to ensure a unified response during calamities and disasters.
Alfonso Baldonado III, chief of the PDRRMO’s administrative and training division, stated that they recently conducted a two-batch “Resilient Radio Communication and Operations Protocols Seminar Workshop” for all radio operators from municipal and city Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Offices (DRRMOs).
“Our objective is for the province to become one team when it comes to radio communications, protocols, and operations—a single standard and a strong signal for the entire province,” Baldonado explained in an interview on Monday. He noted that interoperability had been a challenge in the past due to a lack of coordinated training for radio operators.
To address this, the provincial government has established five radio repeaters, one in each district, in addition to the first repeater located on Mt. Cañapasan in San Enrique town. This network ensures that the province can maintain communication even when commercial telecommunication services are down.
During the four-day seminar, participants also learned how to create improvised antennas to ensure continuous communication. Baldonado highlighted that a significant takeaway from the workshop was that operators “were able to put faces to the voices we hear over the radio during disaster communications.” He emphasized that personal connections among operators would facilitate faster communication.
Additionally, about three to four months ago, the PDRRMO supplied the 43 local government units in the province with base radios, enabling instantaneous communication from the ground to the PDRRMO operations center. This setup allows for the consolidation and submission of reports to the Office of the Civil Defense and the Office of the Governor, enhancing overall disaster response efficiency.