Manila: The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) has activated key response clusters and placed its operations center on red alert as ‘Nando’ intensified into a super typhoon, bringing threats of strong winds and heavy rains alongside the southwest monsoon (habagat).
According to Philippines News Agency, the clusters now on full activation include logistics (Office of Civil Defense); food and non-food items (Department of Social Welfare and Development); health (Department of Health); law and order (Philippine National Police); search, rescue and retrieval (Armed Forces of the Philippines); camp coordination and management and internally displaced persons protection (Department of Social Welfare and Development); crisis communications (Presidential Communications Office), education (Department of Education); emergency telecommunications (Department of Information and Communications Technology); and debris clearing and civil works (Department of Public Works and Highways).
On standby are the clusters for international humanitarian assistance (Department of Foreign Affairs), management of the dead and missing (Department of the Interior and Local Government), early recovery (Office of Civil Defense), and shelter (Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development). Reports from Office of Civil Defense regional directors confirmed continuous coordination with local government units to implement pre-emptive evacuations, preposition relief goods, and maintain close monitoring of vulnerable areas.
The red alert status ensures that response personnel are deployed for immediate interagency coordination in anticipation of emergencies. NDRRMC Chair and Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. led national agencies and uniformed services in aligning government responses in a meeting Saturday at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
