THE Bacolod City Council has approved a P23-million budget to purchase state-of-the-art equipment for the traffic, flooding and disaster operation command center of the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (DRRMO).
Councilor Caesar Distrito, chairperson of committee on finance, said Monday, September 18, the budget was requested by the DRRMO and Mayor Evelio Leonardia to improve the floods and traffic monitoring.
He said the approved budget will be used for the acquisition of light-emitting diode (LED) television monitors, computers, laptops, recording modules, 32 sets of closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras, and two ultra-high frequency radios antennas system.
Executive assistant Jose Maria Vargas, cluster head for CDRRMO, said the disaster monitoring system will be installed within the compound of the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO).
He said it will be manned by the personnel of DRRMO, BCPO, and Bacolod Traffic Authority Office.
Vargas added that they already identified the 32 strategic locations for the installation of the CCTVs to monitor the emergency situations like traffic accidents and floods.
He said he is hopeful that they could install the monitoring system within the year.
Dondon Parandas, head of DRRMO, said the monitoring system will boost their operations in helping residents of Bacolod and other individuals who need emergency medical services, police assistance, traffic accident assistance, among others.
He added that crimes can be monitored by CCTV cameras.
“With this project, the response time will be shortened and on-duty personnel can immediately deploy the needed responders,” Parandas said.
