Baguio targets resilient city status by 2030

“Marami pa tayong kakulangan, marami pa dapat tayong gawin in achieving Baguio’s commitment to be an MCR (Making Cities Resilient) compliant city by 2030. Iyon ang direksyon natin ngayon.”

Thus, declared Mayor Benjamin Magalong in his message during flag-raising rites, Sept. 25, at City Hall before officials, employees and guests.

“All the while I thought that Baguio was a very resilient city because in the entire country, we were the first to open our economy during the tail-end of the Covid-19 pandemic and were also immediately able to recover from the public market fire and typhoon ‘Egay’ by having a united front and cooperation from all the stakeholders,” he disclosed.

He made the conclusion after recently attending the United Nations-backed International Disaster Resilience Leaders Forum in Incheon, Seoul Korea, and learned about the latest parameters on resiliency.

“The city government has concentrated and focused so much of its efforts on sustainability and innovation only to find out that we lack or are wanting in resiliency,” the Mayor said.

He disclosed that the city has received a three-year, multi-million peso grant from ARISE (Private Sector Alliance for Disaster Resilient Societies), the UN and the National Resiliency Council on capacity and capability building for the city to be able to really establish its status as a resilient city.

During the South Korea forum, the Mayor presented the Summer Capital’s best practices in disaster risk reduction and highlighted its state-of-the-art Smart City Command Center. – Gaby B.Keith