Earthquake preparedness

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

The death toll of the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that ripped through China last week is expected to reach or even exceed 50,000.  One thing that made this earthquake so devastating in terms of human losses is the fact that many schools that were filled with children at the time of the tremor collapsed, trapping and killing thousands of school-aged children in a country where families are only allowed to have one child.

With just a few weeks to go before schools reopen here in the Philippines, the head of the Philippine Institute of Vocanology and Seismology has strongly urged the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education to conduct safety checks on all school buildings nationwide.  Philvolcs director Renato Solidum Jr. recently said that an undisclosed number of school buildings in the country might be “vulnerable” if a strong earthquake were to hit the country.  Aside from checking the school buildings, Solidum also urged our education officials to conduct earthquake and evacuation drills in all schools as soon as they open next month.  He also stressed that building inspections and drills are activities that have to be conducted tirelessly.

This responsibility to ensure the safety of schoolchildren in case of an earthquake does not fall on the shoulders of education officials alone.  Local government must also make sure that building and construction codes are strictly followed, especially in schools and in public places where people regularly converge. The threat of a strong earthquake flattening shabbily made school buildings must also be a warning for public officials whose greed has contributed to this condition, and an added incentive for those government officials involved in the fight against graft and corruption to take their job seriously.

It is not a question of if an earthquake with more or less the same magnitude as the one that flattened parts of China last week will strike the Philippines; it is a question of when.  It may be a 1 week or 100 years, but if and when it does hit, those officials who have allowed substandard buildings to be built, occupied, or used by school children, must be held accountable.*