Mayor Co grateful with the establishment of TeWS in Pagadian City

By Gideon C. Corgue

PAGADIAN CITY, July 1— I am both happy and thankful that Pagadian City was selected by DOST-PHIVOLCS as the location of the Tsunami Early Warning System (TeWS) in the entire region 9.

Thus disclosed Mayor Samuel Co during his weekly radio program dubbed "Mayor's Report".

Co said that he planned the barangays that would be an option to set up TeWS, as follows: Kawit, Santiago, Sta. Lucia and San Pedro, but the barangay San Pedro was chosen by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and PHIVOLCS to be the proper location for the said equipment.

Co added that he agreed that TeWS will be placed in San Pedro saying the tourism projects such as water park, fish park, sports complex, and boating station are located and it is expected that many tourists will be in those places.

Co is impressed with the newly installed TeWS because it is state-of-the- art equipment where it is the remote control that will be used to operate using the mobile phone, and does not use electricity because it is a solar power. .

Co added that Punong Dionisio Sumampong of barangay San Pedro is also happy with the establishment of the said equipment and he prays that the TeWS will not create a sound because it means that there will be a tsunami that will happen somewhere.

The good mayor said that the installation of TeWS will be slowly replicated in the barangays of the city, especially the coastal barangays.

"All coastal barangays in the city will be equipped with TeWS because if a tsunami occurs, the equipment will sound very quickly. It is always better to be prepared than to just wait because if a tsunami occurs somewhere it will reach the coast within seconds and minutes," Co reminded.

The local chief executive reported that before TeWS was established, DOST and PHIVOLCS held a seminar in the barangays and in that meeting, Co urged the barangays to make an evacuation and emergency plan to protect the people from disaster.

The initiative is part of the DOST and PHIVOLCS project on tsunami warning and preparedness for selected high-risk coastal communities of the Philippines, especially Pagadian who experienced the tsunami in August 1976. (jcc/The Pagadian Times)