The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) urged local government units (LGUs) to utilize the geo-hazard map created by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Mines and Geosciences Bureau (DENR-MGB) to mitigate disaster risks in the country.

In a Palace briefing on Friday, NDRRMC Undersecretary Ariel Nepomuceno emphasized that the geo-hazard map can be a crucial tool for LGUs to identify areas where pre-emptive and forced evacuations should be enforced.

In recent weeks, the country has been battered by strong typhoons, causing massive flooding and landslides, particularly in the Bicol and Calabarzon regions and northern Luzon provinces.

Nepomuceno noted that the DENR has released a list of barangays prone to landslides, floods, and storm surges based on the DENR-MGB geo-hazard map.

He commended various government agencies for recognizing the “advantage of available data and scientific data to help us in the predictive analysis of what will happen.”

“We have a common geo-hazard map, and we will populate that with important and critical data. One of which is from the MGB, which will point out exactly what are the vulnerable areas or communities,” he said.

Nepomuceno also highlighted the crucial data provided by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology and other foreign agencies in monitoring weather conditions in the country.

“All the data will be used by national agencies to come up with a conservative recommendation for communities, and we would like to make sure that the LGUs fully utilize the recommendations and scientific data provided to them,” he added.