National Building Code crucial for structure resilience, says OCD

The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) reiterated Tuesday that disaster preparedness hinges on a fundamental aspect of preparation — the National Building Code.

OCD spokesperson and director Chris Bendijo echoed statements by OCD Undersecretary Ariel Nepomuceno that the Philippines needs to enhance its preparation for a potential magnitude 7.2 earthquake, often referred to as “The Big One.”

This comes after Myanmar was struck by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake on Friday.

Currently, the Philippines employs two primary levels of earthquake preparation: building inspections and the “duck, cover and hold” practice during earthquake events.

In a television interview, Bendijo stressed the critical importance of adhering to the National Building Code when constructing structures.

“We still have a lot to catch up on here because those are very basic things, for example, our compliance with the National Building Code — we need to follow this and check if it is really being followed because the resilience of structures depends on this,” Bendijo said.

“Our ducking, covering, and holding that we do in earthquake drills will be meaningless if our buildings also collapse because they do not comply with the Building Code,” he added.

Bendijo added that current policies and regulations implemented by the government are adequate but he expressed concern over the insufficient compliance with the national building code.

“The compliance, we think this is what we need to improve on because when we issue a building permit, when we issue an occupancy permit, we need to make sure that it is in accordance with the Building Code and also in accordance with the plan submitted,” Bendijo said.

“When we take shortcuts here, we put ourselves and our families in danger and jeopardy when a disaster strikes because the resilience of the structure depends on our compliance with the Building Code,” he added.

To ensure that developers adhere to the national building code, Bendijo said the Department of the Interior and Local Government, as a member of the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council, plays a key role.